actuality
by still.fly
Summary: After being put to sleep and having forged memories shoved into their heads by an unnamed villain, Bakugou and Uraraka shake off their sleep in enough time to escape. With a lot of resulting baggage, they learn the importance of honesty and relying on one another in order to save the day. -For kacchako positivity week on tumblr!
1. first days

**actuality**

 ** _chapter one:_** **first days**

When Ochako woke, the incandescence of her surroundings drew a soft smile to her face. The windows had been left open through the night to chase away the heat, causing the white curtains to blow serenely from the breeze coming from outside. Her ears perked at the familiar sound of the morning news—the anchormen were discussing the rankings of the current pro heroes and the rising new stars—and beyond that she could also pick out the soft crashing of waves just outside the window.

She sat up, stretching, and feeling the heavy drag of sleep almost immediately let go of its hold on her. The light pooled from seemingly every direction, making everything look soft and inviting—like a painting that somehow made average things look much more beautiful than they actually are.

She stood up, scratching her stomach—which was flat and toned and proof of all of her hard work—and padded into the room where the television was playing. She heard footsteps and the clanking of plates coming from the kitchen, and figured Izuku was making breakfast.

She blinked, the glamour around her confusing her for just a second before she shrugged it off and honed in on the television.

She smiled, as the rankings of heroes were listed out—she'd finally made it into the top twenty! Along with many of her friends and former classmates! Her aspirations in life were really becoming obtainable! She couldn't believe it. The only thing that could make this moment better was if Izuku would get over here and—

Strong arms wrapped around her waist from behind, and she found herself leaning back into a solid wall of muscle. Pine and cinnamon wafted into the air, calming her even more than the serenity she'd already felt.

"Breakfast is ready," A familiar voice murmured quietly into her ear.

Ochako hummed, glancing out through the window and staring out into the vast expanse of sand and sea.

"Izuku," She whispered, turning around in his arms so that she could look into his eyes. Green met brown, and the confusion she'd felt briefly before smacked into her tenfold now. She glanced away from him and back again, and each time she did she would blink as her mind tried to piece together what was happening. Izuku. The sand outside. Izuku. The patterned curtains. Izuku. The distant waves. Izuku. The perfect little bubble around her that she couldn't— _shouldn't_ —pop.

Where was she?

She glanced at a vase of seashells on the coffee table—weren't seashells rough and jagged? But everything was so _soft_ , including the seashells. Even Izuku, who was definitely made entirely out of muscle, was soft and enticing underneath her fingertips.

"Ochako," Deku asked ever so worried, tucking a strand of hair out of her eyes, but that couldn't be right either, "Are you okay?"

Ochako shook her head, trying to combat what she was feeling now with all of the memories in her head. It didn't even make sense that none of this made sense, and it was _pissing her off_. She and Deku had been together for years. But the glamour around her was too perfect, the world was too bright, and that wasn't _normal_.

"Uraraka?" Deku asked again, sounding gruffer and much more frantic. He was patting her face, trying to bring her back. Tears were leaking from her eyes, but she was supposed to be _happy_. When she blinked, green eyes morphed into red.

"Uraraka!" The voice snapped from Izuku's lips, and reality crashed on her like a sheet of rain.

»»-¤-««

She gasped, eyes opening for real. Her brain felt fuzzy, and she was honest to god _confused_ as to why she was looking up at a face that wasn't Deku. A face that looked too young to correspond to the memories that were in her head. But there he was—Bakugou Katsuki, with slightly softer cheeks and the same haircut he sported during their third year of high school. He was kneeling over her and slapping her face, red eyes screaming at her to _get her shit together._

She blinked, getting up on her elbows to look around. Bakugou, alarmed at her sudden impending proximity, backed away to give her space.

They were in the common room of their dorms, and they weren't alone. Except that their other classmates that were also there were passed out on the ground—like she had just evidently been. Kaminari, Kirishima, Iida, Tsuyu, Todoroki, _Deku_ were all sleeping soundly with smiles of pure contentment on their faces. The emergency lights lit up their faces in ethereal blue, creating jagged edges of shadow that contrasted so much to whatever world she'd just been in.

"Oh," Ochako said in equal parts disappointment and realization, "It wasn't real."

"No," Bakugou grunted, grabbing hold of her wrist and tugging on it, "Now get up. We gotta run."

Ochako's eyes widened, the fog in her brain clearing somewhat as the dilemma she'd just woken up to crashed back into the forefront of her mind. It felt like wading through years of memories, like she still couldn't get the specific details right, couldn't remember _who_ did this to them, or _why_ , but she definitely knew that, _yes_ , they needed to leave.

"What about—" She started, looking towards their friends and classmates with tears in her eyes. But Bakugou cut her off.

"Uraraka," He said, resolutely with just a hint of fear in his eyes, "We can't save 'em if we're put under that fucking spell again." He yanked on her arm again until she was rising to her feet. She felt weighed down with sleep—not to mention the ice-cold rush of sadness and unease that his words shot through her veins—but forced herself to stay standing, forced herself to follow him outside into the black of night.

They ran.

Bakugou's pace was brutal, but not so much that she couldn't keep up. She wondered why he didn't just use his quirk, but then remembered that his explosions were the exact opposite of covert. They detoured through ground beta, weaving through the buildings so that they wouldn't be seen. By the time they hit the massive gate separating U.A. from the rest of the world, Ochako _already_ felt nauseous but nonetheless activated her quirk on the both of them so that they could vault over with ease.

And they kept running.

It felt like they'd been running forever—her lungs felt like they were going to _implode_ —when Bakugou finally stopped. They were at a park that she recognized, one that she'd spent time with her friends at when they had some free time to be normal teenagers and _not_ heroes in training. It was miles away from U.A., but certainly not far enough. She cocked her head at Bakugou in confusion.

"Why are we stopping?"

He stooped down, hands on his knees as his breath came in heavy pants. The beads of sweat dripping down the side of his face caught the light from the full moon, and the sight somehow comforted Ochako. The more he sweat, the more powerful he was—and he was already one of the most powerful people Ochako knew.

She wasn't any better. In fact, she was worse. Her lungs ached and every single one of her heavy inhalations was accompanied by an unsettling wheezing sound. The muscles in her legs were screaming at her to sit down and stay there. Her head was pounding, and she was probably dehydrated. Tenya always reprimanded her for not drinking enough water, and now it was really biting her in the ass.

Bakugou's red eyes slanted over to her at her question, and she watched him clench his fists. Whatever he was feeling, she couldn't read. And that was unsettling because he was usually an open book, at least when it came to his intense feelings.

"You need to recuperate, right?" He said, like it was obvious, "And we need to talk about where the fuck we even plan to go." He pulled her away from the park, towards the trees where they could hide more easily in the shadows. She sat down against a tree trunk, her legs grateful for the momentary reprieve. He sat down beside her, close enough that their legs made a long line of warm contact between them. Ochako jumped, not expecting the contact. She was too tired to move away from him, however, so she allowed this small physical connection. But the longer they sat like that, the more she realized that she didn't mind.

"Let's talk about that fucking quirk," Bakugou began quietly, "The one that took down our entire school in less than ten minutes."

Ochako screwed her eyes shut and racked her brain for the recollections that led up to this moment. But it was so _hard_. There were memories shoved in her head by someone else that were all fabricated. She couldn't of spent more than _twenty minutes_ under that spell, but everything that had been implanted in her brain to make her dream make _sense_ felt just as _real_. She felt like she'd spent _years_ in that imaginary world. Separating that from reality was making her confused all over again.

She hugged her stomach, noting that the rock hard abs she'd had in her dream had been an illusion as well.

Bakugou chuckled self-deprecatingly, "So your brain is just as messed up as mine, huh? Feels like I've lived a whole other life and everything before going under is a fucking blur. It's fuckin' bullshit." Bakugou glared up at the moon like it personally offended him, "But I know one thing for sure: I can't go back."

Ochako gaped at him with wide eyes—Bakugou, notorious for being unable to verbalize his feelings well, had put words to the emotions that she hadn't even realized she was feeling. The life she had lived inside her head was perfect and—incredibly hollow. The anxiety of ever having to return to that was tangible—following behind her as soon as she'd woken up from it—like a demon ready to pounce at any given moment. It hadn't even been that long since they'd left campus, but to believe even for a second that they were somehow now safe was incredibly foolish. And that reality hit her hard.

She stood up, having found her second wind.

"I know where we can go," She said, patting herself down and then sighing when she realized that she didn't have her phone. She gazed down at him sheepishly, "You don't happen to have your phone on you?"

Bakugou slipped his out of his pocket.

"Who are you trying to call?"

"Oh, gee. I don't know. You know any friends that live in the area, have a hero license, and would most definitely still be up this late?"

Bakugou blinked up at her, "Oh _fuck_ no."

»»-¤-««

"Dudes," Camie said, as she opened the door to her apartment, "Long time no see. Shame we gotta meet up like this."

"Hey Camie," Bakugou grumped, shouldering past Ochako at the entryway and strolling into Camie's apartment like he owned the place. He wrinkled his nose, "If you insist on having a cat, then at least clean out its fucking litter box. It smells like shit in here."

"Sorry, bro," Camie said lightly, and mysteriously like she wasn't sorry at all. She picked up the offending cat and scratched it behind its ears affectionately, "I've been busy af."

"Thanks for letting us crash here," Ochako said to her quietly, coming up to her so that she could pet her palm down the cat's back.

Camie beamed at her, closing the door behind Ochako and locking it, "No problem, fam! You're always welcome here. 'Specially little Bakubro! He's, like, one of my bromates."

"Stop calling me that, 'lusion."

Of all the relationships that Bakugou felt the need to maintain, none of them baffled Ochako more than his relationship with Camie. The fact that she had enough of an impact on him, that he took the time out of his day to keep their snapchat streak going or that he had such an affection nickname for her like 'lusion—a shortened version of 'Illusion' or 'Miss Illusion'—said a lot about the Shiketsu graduate.

"No can do, Bakudude!" Camie responded casually, walking over to the closet near the bedroom and digging for blankets, "Sorry I don't have a guest bedroom—I'm poor and taking donations. Jokes. Ha ha." Ochako actually couldn't believe that this woman said 'ha ha' instead of laughing. "Funny quips aside, one of you will have to take the floor."

"I'll take it," Bakugou grunted, just as Ochako was opening her own mouth to call dibs on the floor.

"Nice," Camie remarked, turning around from her search to wink, "You're totes becoming a gentleman, Bakuswol. I'm beyond proud."

"Remind me why we came here," Bakugou whispered to Ochako through gritted teeth. Ochako smiled sheepishly at him, and reached up out of reflex—it's been ingrained in her as a hero to comfort people in distress—to rest a warm hand on his shoulder. She made extra care to keep her pinky finger lifted. To her shock, he melted under her touch like a grouchy dog. It occurred to her horrifically that she was _casually touching Bakugou_ and _not getting blown up_ for it. She removed her hand like she'd been burned.

Camie chucked some blankets and pillows at them, snapping them out of whatever trance they'd been in—one where Bakugou was clearly angry at himself for letting her touch him, and one where Ochako was astounded at herself for doing the touching in the first place—and then Camie wandered into the bathroom and started digging through her drawers.

"Lucky day, my dudes," She declared, pulling out two brand new toothbrushes, "I got the hook-ups!"

»»-¤-««

"Uraraka," Bakugou whispered hours later into the dark. Camie had blackout curtains, so the only light they had came from the LED of the microwave and stove. Uraraka had been staring up at the ceiling trying to go to sleep for a while now, but some part of her was afraid that if she fell asleep she'd be sucked back into some fictitious world again.

"Hmm?" She responded, turning on her side so that she could face where Bakugou was sleeping on the ground just below her. The stench of cat shit from earlier had watered down a bit, after Bakugou bullied Camie into cleaning it out.

"Fuck," He whispered back, like he wasn't actually expecting her to be awake, "Nothing. Go to fucking sleep."

Ochako's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"Bakugou…" She said quietly, "You can talk to me, you know?"

"Fucking whatever," Bakugou growled, and Ochako could hear the rustling of blankets as the explosive blonde tried to get comfortable on the floor, "Like I even know what to say."

"What," Ochako started, curiosity getting the better of her, "What was your life like?"

As in, the life he had lived only in the memories forced inside his head.

Bakugou snorted, "It doesn't fucking _matter_. It was _fake_ ," He growled, "So don't go around saying shitty things like that, acting like it was real."

Ochako sniffed, annoyed, " _You_ said you didn't know what to say; _I_ was just trying to give you something to go off of."

"It's none of your fucking business," He insisted, turning over again.

"Oh yeah?" She said hotly, "Neither one of us can sleep, you asshole. My brain can't even determine what's real or not right now because of what was crammed into my brain without my consent. God," She continued, feeling the hot sting of tears at the corner of her eyes, "I can't even remember _who_ did this or _how_ they did it. What if I fall back asleep and it happens all over again? What if I don't wake up this time? What if I get trapped in something that seems so fucking authentic but is all a goddamn _sham_?" She sucked in a deep breath, trying to lower her voice so as not to wake Camie in the room over, "I'm not asking you to unpack all your complex emotions, Bakugou. But we kinda need to know what sort of baggage the other is carrying if we're going to be on the run together."

Bakugou was silent for a long time after that. Uraraka waited for a solid minute before she sighed in frustration, rolling over so that her back was to him.

"I suck at this shit," He whispered eventually. Uraraka jumped, genuinely surprised that he had said something at all (not to mention that he was admitting that he _sucked_ at something), and peeked over her shoulder to try and make out his silhouette in the blackness. He sighed heavily, sitting up and reaching for his phone (Camie had generously given him one of her chargers). A moment later the flashlight was activated and enough light spilled into the room to illuminate their faces. He crawled over to the couch so that he could look her in the eyes. Subconsciously, she flipped over again so as not to strain her neck.

"Look," He said gruffly, but calmly, "I'm sorry that I'm so fucking closed off. This shit ain't easy for me." Ochako's eyes widened, never guessing that she'd ever be on the receiving end of an apology from Bakugou Katsuki. "But you're right," He went on, sighing again, "I can't promise to be an open fucking book, alright? But let's make a deal. You can ask me one question everyday that I'll promise to answer honestly. But you have to answer it too." His eyes flashed with split-second insecurity, so uncharacteristic of him, "I'm not doing this for nothin', after all."

"That's fair," She breathed.

They stared at each other for a moment, until Bakugou growled.

"Well?" He demanded crossly.

Ochako hummed, already knowing exactly what she wanted to ask, "What got you to wake up from it?"

Bakugou's eyes screwed shut—like he definitely knew the answer, but was repulsed by the idea of sharing it with her.

Maybe this actually wasn't a good idea! No matter how much Ochako wanted him to be open to her, mostly for his sake, she also didn't want to force him to do something that he _really_ didn't want to do.

"I-I could ask something else—!"

"No," Bakugou insisted, still sitting close to the couch, "I made a fucking promise, and I can fucking _do this_."

Silence encompassed them while he gathered his words, and Ochako took this opportunity to study him. Camie had offered him some pajama pants that she had in her dresser from some three in the morning booty call—and had insisted that they were washed and clean—but he had opted to just sleep in his shirt and boxers from that day. His hair was even more disheveled from rolling around and trying to convince sleep to take him. He looked tired. His eyes looked older.

She guessed that she probably looked the same.

"It," Bakugou finally said, looking away from her like avoiding eye contact would make it easier for the words to come, "It was perfect. Everything about it. And I knew it was too fucking good to be true. I woke up when my brain made the realization that I don't actually deserve everything that I want." He unclenched his hands as if in defeat, and finally met her gaze once again, "Your turn."

She sucked in a breath, suddenly rueful of the question she had asked.

"Same as you," She said, "I realized that it couldn't be real. In my dream…I ended up with Deku…I was living with him. But as soon as I saw his face, despite all the memories placed in my brain that built up to that moment, I knew that it just didn't make sense that he would focus on me at the same level he focuses on his goal of becoming a hero. That made the glamour crack, and I woke up to your face instead of his."

Bakugou stared at her, expression unreadable.

"Sorry to disappoint you," He grumbled, grabbing his pillow and laying back down.

Ochako bit her lip—she didn't mean it in a bad way, but it probably came off like it. Because the truth was, he kind of saved her. She's not sure if she would have woken up at all if he hadn't stopped to bring her back. She was a little astounded he had even _bothered_ to bring her back—she wondered if she should ask him about that one of these days, but also wondered if that was getting a little _too_ personal.

She watched him, unsure of what to say or if words would even help this situation. But before she could make up her mind about anything, he shut off the light on his phone, pulled the blanket back over himself and turned so that his back was to her.

She shut her eyes and eventually fell asleep to the words _Bakugou saved me_ echoing through her mind.

»»-¤-««

When Ochako cracked open her eyes in the morning, it was because her body was stiff and uncomfortable from sleeping on Camie's crappy couch. She groaned, snuggling into her arm that was dangling off the side of the couch in an attempt at going back to sleep. It was then that she noticed that her fingertips were brushing against something soft, and her eyes shot immediately open.

Sometime while they'd been sleeping, Bakugou had rolled over until he was practically pressed against the side of the couch. It was his hair, she realized. Her fingertips were brushing against _his hair_. They'd been _in_ his hair. She fondled his hair in her sleep!

She retracted her hand immediately, face turning fuchsia.

As if sensing that it was time for her to reign down some chaos, Camie's bedroom door burst open and startled both her from her panic and Bakugou from his sleep. He jolted up, hands cupped with his fingers spread in his trademark battle stance. His shirt had ridden up to his armpits during the night. And while the blanket had been covering that up before Camie's grand entrance, there was now nothing blocking Ochako's view of Bakugou's torso.

"Damned woman!" Bakugou roared, chucking his pillow at the other blonde who was decked out in her hero costume. Uraraka thanked gravity for finally pulling Bakugou's shirt back down. Camie's cat, Floofball, jumped up onto the couch next to Ochako elegantly.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Bakugou screeched at Camie.

Camie ignored him.

"So we've got good news and bad news," She informed them, her hand pressing a communicator that was nestled nicely in her ear, "Good news is that you were smart coming here. Bad news is that, like, all of the top one-hundred heroes are under some sort of spell."

Bakugou settled down, and he and Ochako shared a look.

"What kind of spell?" Ochako asked, turning away from red eyes.

Camie shrugged, "They're stuck in some kind of sleep. But, like, one that they can't wake up from. Sounds like what you two were going off about last night tbh. Totally bizarre." She tapped on her communicator, listening to the words of some comrade trying to relay information. "The hero classes of all years both at U.A. and Shiketsu have vanished," She frowned at that, "And the heroes trapped under the spell are being taken to the hospital for life support. I'm being called in, fam. Stay here until further notice." She grabbed her keys off the hook by the door and left without another word.

Bakugou immediately scrambled to his feet, and gyuh—the ends of his boxers also had hiked up slightly!

"Where are you going?" Uraraka inquired, ripping her eyes from his sculpted upper legs and watching as he walked over to Camie's room, "Oh my god, don't go in there!"

"I'm not fucking snooping, round face," Bakugou snarked, belligerently walking forward, "So calm your fucking tits."

"No!" Ochako insisted, shaking her head, "You don't know what you'll find in there!"

That made him stop and glare over his shoulder at her.

"You're absolutely fucking right," He glanced back at her, "You're a girl. You go in there."

Ochako huffed, "It's not a matter of being a girl, and you know it! You were about to go in there regardless! This is solely because it's _Camie_ , and I'd argue that you're way better friends with her than I am making you better suited to maneuver that battleground! Besides," Ochako smirked, well aware that she was going to win this argument, "I don't even know what you want in there. Whatever it is— _you_ want it, _you_ go get it."

Bakugou grumbled, but—wisely—didn't retort.

"Be careful in there!" She chirped sweetly.

Bakugou flipped her off, then carefully stepped foot into Camie's bedroom.

Ochako smiled when she heard him murmur out an annoyed, "I'm not fucking friends with that disgusting _hag_." And then a more pronounced and aggressive, "If I die in here from black mold, my ghost is gonna fucking kill you, Uraraka!"

"Sure it is," She agreed passively.

"Why did you even warn me about Camie's fucking room if you were just going to make me sift through it anyways?" He kept barking. Ochako heard things being thrown around, but not any loud crashes so she figured he was fine for now.

"What's the matter?" She asked cheerily, getting up and heading towards the kitchen to see what food she could conjure up, "I thought you'd appreciate the warning." Unlike Bakugou, she had accepted some sleepwear from Camie. But since the other girl was taller than her, the pant legs extended well past her feet and made walking much more difficult than it needed to be.

"You're a fucking asshole," Bakugou bit out from the bedroom, "Why everyone still thinks you're this fragile piece of glass is beyond me…"

Ochako laughed. One thing she's always appreciated about Bakugou was his determination to take her seriously.

When she returned to the couch with some toast for him and herself, he emerged from the bedroom with Camie's laptop in tow. He plopped it down on the couch, then rushed over to the kitchen to wash his hands.

"Was it really that hard to find that?" Ochako wondered aloud, "I feel like Camie would have her laptop in an easily accessible place. How else does she keep up with all the memes?"

"Oh, it was," Bakugou said, not bothering to dry his hands and returning to the couch to plop down onto the couch _right_ next to her like the concept of personal space only mattered when it was on _his_ terms. He snatched a piece of toast off the plate in her hands and started nibbling on it. "But her room was fucking disgusting so I threw all her nasty garbage in a pile so she can clean it up later." He cracked open the laptop and was met with Camie's lockscreen. Undeterred, he typed something out and hit enter. Ochako blinked, because it actually _worked._

"How do you know her password?" She inquired, unconsciously hooking her chin over his shoulder so that she could see what he was doing. It was something that she'd done with Iida a million times—both in reality, and within the memories that had been shoved in her head (and that was all sorts of worrying)—and she really didn't think much about it. But when Bakugou tensed up at the contact, Ochako realized that maybe she was overstepping boundaries even though the bastard obviously didn't care about _hers_. But a moment later he relaxed and kept searching through articles online.

"Because she told me," Bakugou grunted, the light from the computer screen reflecting in his red eyes, "She thought it was hilarious even though it's stupid as fuck."

"What is it?"

"I am _not_ repeating it."

"Aw, why not?"

"Because only idiots say idiotic things like that!"

"Then type it out somewhere," Ochako insisted, shaking his arm like a petulant kid.

"Fucking," He rounded on her, eyes blazing with irritation, " _Why?"_

"Pfffft!" Ochako laughed through her lips, unable to handle that expression on his face—especially since she knew how unthreatening he really was when it came to people he could call friends if he ever admitted to having any, "Because!" She said, chortling, "If Camie finds it funny, then I probably will too!"

Bakugou stared at her like she was insane, then grumpily turned back to the computer, opened up a blank document, and started typing.

"Both of you are fucking idiots," He mumbled.

Ochako stared at the screen in disbelief. Because the word that Bakugou had just typed out with his very own fingers was _bakutiddies_. She gaped at it for another moment, and then laughter erupted out of her like a _typhoon_.

Bakugou hit the backspace key harder than necessary and for each individual letter rather than all at once as if to display how very annoyed he was by this entire ordeal. But his mouth was quirked up into a smile, even as he was rolling his eyes.

"You fucking ready to get serious, round face?" He asked, talking louder so that he could be heard over her laughter, "You and I are gonna be the ones to piece this shit together—we owe the other fuckers in our class that much."

She sobered up at that.

"Ahh, sorry," She said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. The memories in her head were playing serious tricks on her—it was almost too easy to forget what sort of shit situation they were in with all these floaty, happy memories and thoughts streaming through her head. Now probably wasn't the time to be laughing at something ludicrous like _bakutiddies_.

"Don't be sorry, idiot," He said quietly, "It's important to laugh through stressful times."

Ochako wasn't really sure why she was so surprised by those words—Bakugou was probably All Might's biggest fan, second only to Midoriya—of course the blonde would find importance in smiling and laughing through any situation. Although he was certainly quieter about his idolization than Izuku was so she supposed it was easier to forget how much Bakugou really looked up to their teacher. But through all the shit they've gone through even before this most recent turn of events, he's made it abundantly clear who he looks up to.

But here she found herself, staring up at Bakugou with wonder in her eyes.

She smiled, big as she could.

"You're right, Bakugou," She agreed warmly, because if whatever was before them would be anything like these first days then she was glad that it was Bakugou who had woken her up, "Thank you."

 **»»-¤-««**

 **A/N: Yell at me on tumblr: wonduhhwoman**


	2. fragile

**_chapter two:_** **fragile**

"Not that I don't love you two chillin' here," Camie started one morning as Bakugou was doing her eyeliner for her, "But shouldn't you, like, tell some pros about your little research project? And maybe find somewhere else to live? You're really cramping my style."

Bakugou rolled his eyes, and translated her not so subtle hint easily.

"If you even think about bringing another dude here to hook up while me n' Uraraka are trying to sleep," Bakugou said vehemently, while poking the end of the liquid eyeliner brush dangerously close to her eyes, "I won't just cramp your style. I'll knee the poor fucker in the jewels and his dick will fucking implode."

Camie squinted at him, scratching Floofball behind the ears.

"Stop that!" He barked, "You want me to keep doing this for you everyday? Then fucking learn how to stay still!"

"We're really sorry to be intruding for so long, Camie," Ochako said from the kitchen, elbow deep in sudsy water as she cleaned the dishes they had dirtied from breakfast, "But we don't really know where else to go until we find a lead. All of the teachers at U.A. have gone missing, and we haven't been able to get into touch with our parents."

Bakugou frowned at that, eyebrows scrunched up in worry. His guesses as to what happened to their parents were pretty grim, and voicing those thoughts only made Uraraka cry. But he was certain that whoever was behind this large-scale attack also targeted their known loved ones—for leverage, for ransom, who the fuck knew? His conjecture was that they weren't anticipating anyone to escape that fucking quirk that had them trapped in their own damned minds, and retaliated by kidnapping their parents as a message not to fuck with them.

He'd have to try really hard not to kill this bastard once he finally got his hands on 'em.

Camie reached up, pinching Bakugou's cheeks to force him into a smile.

He shook her off him, and capped the bottled of eyeliner.

"There," Katsuki grunted.

"Thanks, fam," She replied, getting to her feet and putting on the rest of her hero equipment, "I should really stop being so grouchy. You guys do all the cleaning and Bakubabe makes me food all the time. It's lit. Even if he does hog my computer."

"So far we're the only two people we know of who somehow cracked the spell," Bakugou grouched, "So we know what we're looking for. So we _need_ your computer to figure this shit out. Which is much more pressing and important than you looking up _memes_."

"Oh yeah," Camie continued like she just thought of something, "Remind me why I haven't, like, reported any of this to the other pros I work with?"

"The less people who know about our whereabouts," Ochako rehearsed, "The better." She shrugged sheepishly, "We at least informed detective Tsukauchi?"

One of the more unsettling things they unearthed on their first couple of days kicking it at Camie's, was the string of government officials taking a few weeks off at a time—reportedly after having come down with some sort of bug. But the most peculiar part about _that_ , was the report of a legislative woman getting up during a meeting, completely out of nowhere, and accusing many of her fellow legislators by name that they weren't seeing 'reality' and that they needed to 'wake up'. The representative was escorted off the premises and allegedly elected of her own choice to visit some of her relatives in the countryside. That was six months ago.

Long story short, they didn't know whom to trust, although Bakugou had insisted that detective Tsukauchi was trustworthy. Revealing their location could be disastrous, especially since there was a shortage of heroes as Tsukaichi pointed out. And revealing how much they've figured out so far could inadvertently tip off the bad guys. At first, Bakugou would have been wiling to share what they learned with the pros—even if he and Uraraka were certainly going to be the ones to fix all of this before any of those bastards—but that was before they knew the high probability that their very own government was compromised. Thankfully, the detective agreed with them on this matter.

Katsuki opened his mouth to remind her of all this for the twelfth time, but Camie sighed before he could say anything. "I get it," She said, fixing her boots and wandering over to the door, "You're both way too good at this hero shit. Makes me feel like I raised you well."

"You didn't raise us, shitbrains," Bakugou protested.

"Be safe out there," Ochako smiled, drying off her hands, "Let us know if you hear of anything we can use."

"Will do, boss," She affirmed, throwing up a peace sign and leaving.

»»-¤-««

It had only been a week since they started bumming it at Camie's, but Ochako could say with confidence that her and Bakugou had become friends. Close friends, even. She's always felt comfortable around the blonde, at least after he got over some of his pride during their first year—he was funny as hell even if he wasn't meaning to be, and he's never underestimated her. She should have realized that she would get along with him alarmingly well.

It was almost natural to wrestle over the remote on the rare occasions they decided to take breaks from their research. She no longer feared that she would get an explosion to face if she ruffled his hair playfully or pinched his side. She found out early on, to her absolute _glee_ , that he was _super_ ticklish on his sides.

Unfortunately, he knew he could retaliate by barely skating his hands down her back—tickle wars happened all too often.

Almost as frequently as thumb wars.

The one venture they had taken outside that wasn't centered around their research was to a thrift store down the road so that they could stock up on clothing. And now Bakugou would often gripe at her for wearing _his_ clothes more than her own.

Bakugou would _braid her hair_. It was the right amount of cheese for any healthy friendship, and Ochako was wondering _why_ they hadn't ever bothered to spend more time together. Bakugou and Deku's relationship was still not the greatest, but she knew that at the bottom of all their shit was a deep layer of mutual respect. And she couldn't really blame _not_ being friends with the blonde _just_ because Deku was one of her best friends.

"Mm, Bakugou?" She murmured absently, leaning heavily on his arm as he sifted through articles and articles of different instances where quirks were used that they suspected were at play.

At her tone, he set the laptop aside. She smiled—he picked up pretty quickly on when her tone of voice meant what. And right now her lazy words meant that she wanted to ask her question of the day and _talk_.

"What?" He inquired, just shy of being successful at disguising the grumpiness in his voice. He lazily held out his hand, and Ochako accepted his thumb war challenge with glee—she was _determined_ to beat his long ass thumbs one of these days.

"Can I call you Katsuki?" She inquired, peeking up at him with a smile and attempting to capture his thumb beneath hers in vain.

She watched with satisfaction as a rosy shade of red bloomed across his face.

"You want to waste your question of the day on _that?"_ He was really close to screeching, and he turned in place to face her. She fell off his shoulder in the process and found herself giggling into his thigh. She supposed that was the end to that thumb war, so she picked herself up and turned to him as well so that she could lean against the armrest of the couch. She kicked her leg over his knee casually.

Her giggles subsided, and she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

She supposed that this question _was_ pretty tame compared to the others she has asked him thus far. That first day was the most intrusive thing _by far_ , but she made sure to keep up with the theme. It was probably good for them both to decode the feelings they had as a result of their fake visions. She asked him things like how many years of memories were implanted in his brain (six, same as her), if he had any sort of love interest in his world (he hadn't), if he felt bad for being forced to leave their friends behind (the guilt was part of what was keeping him up at night, just like her), and who all he'd been close to in that life.

That one had gotten heavy. Ochako could remember the pained expression on his face as he opened himself up that time. _"No one, really,"_ He had said, _"And that almost sucked me back in. Because it was fucked up how perfect it was, but the fact that I was alone was almost enough for me to believe that that piece of shit world could somehow exist."_

Those words broke her heart, and that's when she vowed to show him _true_ friendship.

So she couldn't really blame him for being shocked by the change in topic and tone.

"Yeah," Ochako answered, feeling especially open at the moment, "I guess I'd like to know if we're friends." Because just because _she_ thought they were, doesn't mean he returned the sentiment. So what if this question was somewhat self-indulgent? It just felt important that she knew the answer.

" _Hah?"_ He sneered, poking her between the eyes roughly, "Are you not fucking _sure?_ Dumbass."

She pouted, rubbing her forehead petulantly, "That's mean, Bakugou."

"Katsuki."

She tilted her head to the side, "What?"

"You _can_ call me Katsuki, round face," Bakugou—no, _Katsuki_ growled like it was obvious, "And you only get one fucking question a day." He poked her forehead again for good measure, and then brought the laptop back onto his legs. When she made no move to join him, he peeked over at her from the corner of his eye. He sighed heavily, and tugged her by the arm until she was settled against him again. Ochako failed to hide her grin at the action; Katsuki really thrived off physical touch now that he was allowing himself to indulge in it. "You already know the answer to the other one anyways," He grouched.

The corners of her mouth quirked up, and she wrapped an arm around his waist—his body heat was extremely comforting, and it seemed like every day that passed they just got more and more touchy-feely so this should be okay, right?

He didn't pull away; he didn't even tense up.

"You can call me Ochako, too," She told him quietly, because that was the deal. An answer for an answer.

"Figured," was all Katsuki offered in response.

"S'nice to hear still," She mumbled into his arm, "Don't you think?"

"One question a day, _Ochako_ ," He reminded her, raising his arm up so he can sling it behind her and give her a noogie.

»»-¤-««

It was a couple of days later that something occurred to her.

"Hey," She said from her place on the floor, blanket strewn across her lap and a bowl of popcorn on the couch between them, "Do you think fantasies are the _only_ thing they can put in people's heads? What if we're so busy looking for something with blinders on that we're not also searching for instances of mentally scarring visions paired with memory manipulation?"

Bakugou looked at her with wide eyes, mouth slowly morphing into a smirk.

"You're a fucking genius," He declared proudly, typing furiously at the laptop. As became custom, Ochako slinked up onto the couch so that she could look at what he was finding from over his shoulder. She blinked when the academy search engine came up with a handful of matches—which is more than they've been able to find all week. He clicked on the first link—an investigation of a string of robberies and tortures in Nagano prefecture. The victims were all reported to have sustained severe memory loss (some even reverting to childlike tendencies), and all described horrific nightmares that were 'too convincing' and 'lifelike' after months of being in a comatose state. The perpetrator: unknown.

They read through a few more articles when Bakugou's ringtone went off. He reached over to check the caller ID and Ochako saw that it was Camie calling.

"What," He barked into the receiver, pressing the speaker button so that Ochako could hear as well.

"Turn on the fucking news," She said simply, then abruptly hung up.

Ochako and Katsuki blinked at each other. Then Ochako reached for the television remote and pressed the power button—it should already be on the news channel, since Bakugou won their last wrestling match. It took a second for the screen to come to life, but when it did what they saw shocked them.

"That's…" Ochako started, voice trembling, "…Tokoyami."

"Holy fuck," Katsuki whispered.

The scene on the television was no doubt the aftermath of a _massacre_. Buildings and homes were _destroyed,_ there was blood _everywhere_. And in the midst of it all stood Tokoyami, spotlights blaring down on him, staring at his own hands like he couldn't believe it himself. The strip across the bottom of the television read _Quirk disaster after power outage in Kosai, over three-hundred dead_.

"They," Katsuki continued in disbelief, "They somehow forced Dark Shadow out of him. They made him go crazy. They…made him kill people."

"Oh my god," Ochako whispered, tears running hot down her cheeks for their classmate. Tokoyami was obviously in despair at what happened—she could tell just from the few shots the news station provided. Whoever was behind all of this, why would they wake him up for this? What are they trying to do? What were their plans for their other classmates? For the students at Shiketsu? Why would they thrust carnage upon such an innocent _kid?_

A pair of strong arms wrapped around her.

"Come here, 'Chako," Katsuki murmured into her hair as he pulled her closer to the heat of his body. She clung onto his shirt, sobs beginning to wrack through her entire form. With six years worth of rainbow bullshit jammed in her brain, she wasn't sure if she could take this much _darkness_ all at once. But Bakugou was there, and he was warm and _real_. His arms were steady and unyielding, anchoring her to the world: a lifeline she cleaved onto desperately.

"How could anyone," She garbled out, nuzzling her snotty nose into Katsuki's shirt, " _d-do this?"_

His arms tightened around her.

"I don't know," He told her, voice low and on the edge of murderous, "But we've got to find whoever did and make them fucking pay."

»»-¤-««

Before any pro heroes could detain Tokoyami to question him, some kind of warp that neither of them had seen before opened up under their classmate's feet and took him away for everyone to see on live television. It started out as a ring of purple light, one that blinked three times before opening up and swallowing Tokoyami like some horror movie type shit.

Investigators and the pro heroes on sight confirmed that there was no sign of anyone else being involved in the incident, at least within Kosai and the surrounding cities. The final death count amounted to five-hundred forty-eight with three-hundred eleven more injured. Tokoyami was wanted on account of manslaughter until other connections to the case could be made.

Ochako was still a fucking mess.

Especially when they decided it was time to go to sleep.

Not that he was any fucking better. After all, he usually waited for her to fall asleep first—then he'd rolled over until he was practically pressed against the bottom of the couch, until her fingers were softly brushing against his scalp. That little assurance of human contact, that he wasn't _alone_ , is what usually got him to finally succumb to sleep.

She was sniffling from her spot up on the couch, and Bakugou was ready to open his mouth and try to console her (and likey fail, because he was terrible at that shit) when she made a move first.

"K-Katsuki?" She blubbered.

"Yeah, angel?" He responded, cheeks warming up when he realized what had just slipped out of his mouth.

Through the darkness he could see her extending her hand out to him.

"I just," She bit her lip, trying to get her emotions under control, "I need to know you're there."

Without another word Katsuki rolled over, grasping her hand and folding her fingers down into a loose fist so as not to have her quirk activate on him and float him to the ceiling. He heard a sharp intake of breath and cursed himself for acting too eagerly. But then the soft pad on her thumb began painting an invisible line up and down the back of his hand, and all insecurities about whether or not this was okay flew out the window.

He wasn't usually so into physical affection—in fact he was pretty opposed to it most of the time because he just didn't know what to _do_ with it. But something about the six years of lonely bullshit in his head has him _craving_ it and it was obvious that it was something Ochako needed as well. He didn't mind indulging her. It was actually remarkably easy to allow her to touch him and to touch her in turn, and he wasn't quite sure what all of this meant nor did he care to figure it out. Whatever this was, it worked for the both of them.

"Thank you," She whispered into the dark.

It was still a long while before her sniffling subsided and she finally fell asleep, but once he was listening to her slow breaths and soft snoring he was quick to follow behind her.

»»-¤-««

"You're too fucking slow, 'Chako," Bakugou barked at her as he stopped to wait for her to catch up to him. They were on their way to Shizuoka's library of quirk enrollments located at the heart of Musutafu—they'd been sifting through the quirks sorted into the 'mind and psychological' section for the past couple of weeks, trying to find possible leads as to who their bad guys were. It was a painful and _boring_ process, but one Katsuki insisted could actually get them somewhere.

Ochako whined, " _Your_ disguise doesn't involve a dress, Katsuki! It's _windy_. I'm trying to protect my _dignity_."

He snorted.

"I thought I told you it'd be smart to wear leggings under that thing," He said, smugly.

"It's _hot_ ," She argued, pointlessly.

"Ah," He said, tugging on her arm to force her into a more brisk walk beside him, "So it was your own choice to not follow my advice?" He raised an eyebrow at her like he was actually expecting her to answer, but when she opened her mouth to respond he plowed right through her, "Then quit complaining! I've already seen you in your underwear anyways, dipshit."

When they were living in such a confined state, it was nearly impossible to preserve modesty. Apparently Bakugou has a habit of strolling around his own space butt naked, and occasionally forgets that he shouldn't walk out of the bathroom fresh after a shower without clothes or at _least_ a towel wrapped around the important bits. Ochako almost combusted the first time she laid her eyes on his _bare_ ass. To her credit, it's a _really_ nice ass.

The both of them have seen _Camie_ naked more times than they can count at this point—one time was too many in their opinion, but the woman insists she's allowed the privilege of traipsing around in the nude in her own apartment so they don't really argue with her about it. She's pretty sure Bakugou got an eyeful of Ochako's naked chest the other day too, although she tries to convince herself that never happened.

"Just because _you've_ seen more of me than I've ever wanted you to," Bakugou rolled his eyes at this, "doesn't mean I have to expose myself to the whole friggin' _world_."

"Tough nuts," Katsuki cajoled.

"You're so _insufferable_ ," Ochako huffed. He really did have the better disguise though—one of Camie's Miss Illusion hats, sunglasses, a hoodie, and jeans. And she got stuck wearing one of Camie's sundresses that showed off _way_ too much of her boobs. And wouldn't stay down in the wind. Not to mention the sunhat that was squeezing her head—sunhats _never_ fit her right.

"You love it."

"You're _stupid_."

"You're not denying it," Katsuki grinned, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her to him playfully. At least being this close to him blocked off the wind and alleviated her flowy-dress problem a little.

"Shut up," Ochako pouted, "Maybe I do."

Katsuki laughed just as they were rounding the corner to where the quirk library was. His hand squeezed her side, and then disappeared when their casual touches were gathering too much attention.

"How long do we have to stay today?" Ochako whined as they ascended the stairs to the entrance.

It had been a few days since the incident at Kosai, during which ten more heroes were found in a comatose state and a curfew was placed over the Shizuoka prefecture. Anyone without a fully functioning hero license found out after ten o'clock could be fined and questioned for possible criminal activity. It was fucked up and bizarre as hell. Katsuki liked to push the limits of the curfew, like he did anything he thought was stupid—but it made her nervous. If there really were assholes under some sort of spell working for the government then she didn't really want to get detained by them.

Katsuki sighed, leveling her with a glare, "We haven't even started yet and you're already whining."

"This stuff is just so _boring_."

"But s'part of hero work," Katsuki reminder her for the hundredth time like she didn't already know.

"A _boring_ part of hero work."

Bakugou rolled his eyes and flicked her forehead, "Better get used to it, round cheeks."

When they got inside, their feet automatically took them exactly where they needed to go as if from muscle memory. The place was huge and the signs were a little confusing, but they had it down by this point. Bakugou skipped the shelves labeled with the earlier letters of the alphabet and picked off exactly where he left off—because his memory was perfect when he wanted it to be. Ochako, who had started at the end of alphabet, couldn't remember for the life of her where she'd left off.

"Do you remember where I was?" She asked sweetly, a little jealous that he was good at literally _everything_. She took the hat off, because she was absolutely done with getting her brain squeezed by the damn thing, and put it on top of the filing cabinets.

"You were in the TR's," He answered, not even looking up from his task and ignoring her tone completely.

She sighed, rolling her eyes in defeat, "Here I go."

"Good."

She slid open the filing cabinet, wondering why they even had hard copies of all this crap when they lived in a digital age. She batted away the little Tenya in her head that was ready to explain it in big words she certainly didn't care to understand, and started looking through quirk profiles.

Most of the quirks were harmless: empathy, misdirection (a quirk that literally distracted people), meditation, levitation, headache relief, dream hopping, to name just a few. But these certainly were not the quirks they were looking for. Ochako was just reading through one in particular, thirty minutes into arriving there, about a lady who could force words into other people's mouths, when she saw one that popped out at her.

Togami Maho. Quirk: Expansion. Quirk type: Mental/Enhancer. Description: Ability to enhance other's quirks—power output, target radius, for example. Activated through touch—extended contact not required, but must touch at least once every twelve hours. The quirk, however, seemed to bring sickness upon the quirk-bearer and the more she used her power the more sick she became.

Ochako blinked at the file, brain trying to piece everything together and seeming to think that _this_ had to fit somewhere.

"Katsuki?" She murmured.

"Hm?"

"All those articles we read about the demon visions were isolated cases, right?" She inquired, backtracking when she realized that probably didn't make a lot of sense, "Like, the villain only ever targeted one at a time?"

"Yeah?"

"But now all of a sudden they're using it on _hundreds_ of people all at once…"

Bakugou slid up behind her so that he could look over her shoulder, his clavicle pressing into her back. She jumped, not expecting the contact so suddenly. "What did you find, 'Chako?" Katsuki asked quietly, eyes zipping over the file she still had in her hand from over her shoulder.

"There could be a dozen quirks out there similar to this one," She mumbled, feeling for some reason like because it was this easy it couldn't possibly connect the dots, "It might not even be a quirk playing a role here—there are all kinds of quirk enhancing drugs—"

Bakugou hummed, interrupting her self-doubt.

"Quit psyching yourself out," He growled softly, "You did good. Knew you would, too."

Ochako turned her head to gape at him, his words washing over her like a warm trickle of water. She was positive that she was blushing; receiving praise from Bakugou Katsuki was a _big deal,_ after all.

He reached forward, took the file out of her hands, folded it up and slipped it into his pocket. He ruffled her hair and then went back to searching through his own files.

"You mean we're not _done?"_ She cried.

He scowled at her, extending his hand to the rest of the unopened cabinets, "Look at all of these shitty files we've yet to look through. Now get your ass to work! We can leave in an hour or so!"

»»-¤-««

"You don't have any questions for me tonight, round face?" Katsuki inquired from his spot on the floor. His arm was outstretched so that he could weave his fingers through hers, and he was playing with the pads on her fingertips like usual.

Ochako hummed, turning onto her side so that she was facing him.

There _was_ one question she'd been dying to ask for a while. But something had been holding her back. Perhaps she had been afraid of getting him angry, but she felt like it was important for him to address—as were most things concerning Deku when it came to him.

"In your world," She started carefully, telling herself that she already started so she couldn't turn back now, "What role did Deku play?"

She could practically _hear_ him stiffen.

But he'd made it abundantly clear so many times before that he wasn't backing down from his promise to open up to her. A week ago she would have worried she'd gone too far, and his silence now was probably more him trying to formulate words rather than his aversion to expressing himself.

"Fuck," Bakugou grumbled, "You can't tell a fucking soul about this."

"Of course," She whispered back kindly, giving his hand an encouraging squeeze.

"And I get to ask you whatever I want later, because this ain't a question you can answer since I already fuckin' know."

"Alright," She agreed easily.

Katsuki huffed.

"In my world," Katsuki started uncertainly, "Deku and I were…partners."

Ochako's face burned _magenta_.

"Eh?" She exclaimed, causing Bakugou to _shush_ her angrily and smack her in the face with his pillow, "I thought you said you didn't have a love interest!?" Holy shit—her and Bakugou's love interest in the fake worlds were the same! How awkward!

But also not bad to think about. She wondered briefly what an Ochako sandwich between the two of them would be like, and consequently felt her face grow even hotter than before.

" _What?_ No!" He corrected frantically, "I didn't – we weren't _dating!_ Are you kidding me? Me and _Deku?_ We'd murder each other! Fucking – no. We were _hero_ partners, idiot."

"Oh," Ochako pouted, unable to stop the disappointment from trickling into her voice.

"Fucking _oh?"_ Katsuki growled, "Why do you sound so fucking _disappointed?"_

"I'm not disappointed," She insisted pitifully, clearly disappointed.

"You're a fucking pervert, aren't you? I bet you're thinking about all sorts of nasty things right now."

"No!"

"Uh huh."

"Stop, Katsuki," She whined, face now burning from embarrassment rather than the fantasies swirling around her brain just a moment ago, "You're being a meanie butt."

"You're the meanie butt," He fired back childishly. If it weren't for the situation Ochako probably would have laughed at the words 'meanie butt' actually coming from his mouth. "Thinking I'd ever go for _Deku_. Please."

"…but you _do_ like boys?" Ochako inquired, sincerely curious.

"And girls," Katsuki said quickly, "I'm…bisexual. And, dammit, that was two fucking questions, round face!"

"Oh, right," Ochako laughed sheepishly, and then wanting to be fair: "Well, I'm also bisexual? But back to the first question—you and Deku were partners?"

"That's it."

"That's it?"

"Yes," He grumped, "What more do you want?"

"Well," Ochako said, "How did you feel about it?"

"You're asking me to unpack seventeen years of _bullshit_ right now."

Ochako waited patiently for him to begin.

Katsuki let out a sigh, long and defeated. "Look," He started, rolling over to glare at her in the dark, "Part of this shit isn't my secret to tell, but I'll try and explain what I can."

"Okay," Ochako breathed, amazed that Bakugou was actually going to get into all this at all. He _technically_ did answer the question already.

"When I was a kid, I was a piece of shit," Katsuki said, squeezing her hand harder. She wondered if he realized he was doing that, "But no one fucking stopped me. Not my teachers, not my parents—no one. 'Cept Deku. Fuck. Or, at least he _tried_ to. Kinda hard when you're—" He cut himself off abruptly, "—anyways. He drove me fucking insane, but you already knew that. You probably don't know why though. Fuck if I even _really_ know. I guess I was just an insecure little shit with an inferiority complex that was competing viciously with my massive superiority complex. I – it just – it made me so _mad_ that he thought he could be a hero the likes of _All Might_ when _I_ was working my ass off and he was doing _jack shit_. Not to mention the sheer level of badass that's my quirk, while that nerd—" He interrupted himself again, this time with a growl, "—whatever. But despite how wimpy and pathetic I told myself he was, something about the nerd scared me. Like something deep inside me just knew how much of a better hero he could be than me. So I made his life a fucking nightmare…" Katsuki stopped as if not knowing where to go next. Ochako saw his struggle and decided to help.

"What changed?"

"I did," He said gruffly, "For the first time in my life, I was playing with people who could stand in the same ring as me. That included Deku, no matter how much I didn't want it to be true."

He drew in a shaky breath and Ochako's eyes widened, not realizing he'd been holding back so much emotion. She squeezed her fingers around his firmly, ready to be an anchor if he needed it.

"I," He started, voice wet with tears, "I don't deserve his forgiveness. But he fucking gave it to me in that fake ass world, because deep down I fucking wanted it. I _still_ want it. I _want_ to fix all the shit between us. I want his stupid _friendship_. But I don't deserve it, 'Chako. I _don't_ deserve his admiration or to _ever_ be partners with him. Fuck—I'm—" He cut off with a wet heaving breath.

Ochako tugged on his arm.

"Hey," She said softly, "Get up here."

He obliged, getting up on his knees in front of the couch, waiting for her to scoot back so that there was room for him on the edge, and then falling down next to her as if bearing the burden of all these emotions was physically exhausting—which, it probably was. She was quick to wrap her arms around him and pull his head into her neck. It was a lot of physical contact all at once, even for how close they'd become within the past couple of weeks, but she tried her best not to be awkward about it. And after a moment he melted into the contact, tangling their legs together and digging his fingers into her hair.

Bakugou was a quiet crier for the most part, but the unmistakable sound of sniffling continued on for a while. There were so many things she wanted to say, so many ideas about himself she wanted to adjust in his head. But there was only one that seemed positively crucial.

"You know, Kacchan," She hummed, making sure to use the nickname that Izuku had adopted—had never given up. He flinched at the name, but then nuzzled deeper into her clavicle. She resisted the urge to press her lips into his hair, unsure if he wanted to be coddled _that_ much (or perhaps too afraid of what that could turn into). "All you have to do is ask him. If you show Deku what you've just shown me, I'm positive he'll forgive you of everything."

Katsuki grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like begrudging agreement, which brought a smile to her lips.

"We gotta save him first, angel," Katsuki muttered, the words coming out rough and wet, "I swear when we get him back, I'll tell him how fucking _sorry_ I am. We'll save him. We'll save all of them."

"Yeah we will," Ochako whispered into his hair. The distinct smell of burnt sugar that Ochako had come to associate with Katsuki clouded her thoughts with warmth and comfort.

There was another question that wanted to burst from her lips, but she held it back. She'd wait until another day, until another moment like this resurfaced. But for now she was content to stroke his hair and discover the comfort that came from having someone this close. And not just anyone, but _Katsuki_ —the strongest person she knew, besides maybe Deku. And even then, the two of them were probably on equal footing.

What a wonderful thing to know that even _Bakugou_ could be fragile at times.

For the first time in weeks, neither one of them had any trouble falling asleep. And once they got to sleep, their mind's remained at peace. No nightmares. No memories from made up worlds.

Just the warmth from each other's bones trickling slowing into the beating muscle nestled behind their respective ribcages.


	3. roses

**_chapter three:_** **roses**

"We're gonna be gone most of the day," Katsuki declared to Camie the next morning at the breakfast table. Luckily for both her and Bakugou, Camie woke up later than usual. Meaning she didn't find them snuggled up together on the couch that morning. Meaning they weren't being teased relentlessly for it. "We're following a lead," He explained when Camie looked confused as hell.

"Lit, bro," Camie replied, buttering up her toast, "Do you need backup?"

"From _you?"_ He sneered, "Fuck n—"

"Some backup would be lovely, Camie," Ochako interjected, "But we'll let you know if we're in a sticky situation, yeah? Tsukauchi is meeting us along the way, but we really don't want these villains to know that we're working with the police force. And we're really only trying to gather information—I'd be surprised if we ended up in a brawl."

Camie looked pointedly at Bakugou, "You really believe that? With _this_ dude around?"

"Fuck you, 'lusion."

"When and where, bro?" She stuck her tongue out at the other blonde.

"Gross," Katsuki gagged, which was probably the exact response Camie was hoping for, "Don't you _ever_ come anywhere near my dick."

"You two are like siblings," Ochako deadpanned, stuffing a piece of pancake in her face, "Really _annoying_ siblings."

Camie flung an arm around Bakugou and threw up a peace sign with her other hand, "Separated at birth, bitch!"

Bakugou grabbed her by the face and pushed her away forcefully, "Fucking get _off_ me! That doesn't even make any sense! We're not even the same age!"

"You let babe over there touch you all the time," Camie pouted from behind her cup of coffee, gesturing towards Ochako, "And just roll with it, Bakuswol. We're _twins_ , okay? Accept it."

"I let _babe_ over there touch me because she _bathes_ regularly, butt sniff."

Camie shrugged, "You got me there."

Ochako growled, face red due to Bakugou calling her _babe_ even if it was only to spite Camie, "It's like you're _trying_ to grate on every single one of each other's _and_ _my_ nerves!"

"Aw," Camie said, rounding on the brunette, "Macho 'Chako. Don't be like that, bae."

"Do you _ever_ shut up?" Bakugou barked, biting into a banana aggressively. Ochako wasn't sure if he even realized that he hadn't peeled the damn thing yet, or if he _definitely_ realized and his pride just forced him to play it off like it was an everyday occurrence.

She watched him force that thing down, his throat working hard to gulp down the extra layer of the fruit.

Yeah, he definitely noticed.

Ochako sighed, long and defeated.

»»-¤-««

Their lead just so happened to live within Kosai, just outside of the disaster and evacuation radius from last week. Meaning, they couldn't take the train the whole way there. But they had been in contact with Tsukauchi Naomasa ever since their parents had gone missing—the detective was going to meet them near the train station and accompany them to the Togami residence.

They'd gone to the police about the disappearance of their parents as soon as it became a concern—of course they had. Tsukauchi was on the investigation, but his weekly reports continued to come up empty handed. Which—it was grating on both of them.

But Naomasa had been surprisingly helpful to the two of them, even outside of the situation revolving around their parents. He even agreed that their research shouldn't be given to the pros, most of which were still green and have never ran a covert operation in their careers. Bakugou was positive the detective was thankful that he and Ochako had the sensibility to at least inform _him_ of what they were doing.

Ochako had teased him relentlessly saying that Bakugou only did it so that Aizawa couldn't find any reason to expel the two of them when all of this was said and done. But in the end, they were _both_ glad that they had Tsukauchi on their side.

"Holy shit," Ochako whispered to his left, breaking away from their current thumb war (he'd won). The warmth of her body pressing against his side absconded as she got up to walk to the other side of the train so that she could peer out the window that was facing the wreckage of the Kosai incident.

The devastation was even more grueling in person.

Everything was…fucking pulverized.

Bakugou grit his teeth, brain flashing back to the live broadcast immediately after the destruction—Tokoyami had been very much awake and very much aware of what he'd been forced to do. Bakugou had a few theories on why they had chosen Tokoyami—perhaps the villains didn't account for the bastard's quirk, a sentient being connected to Tokoyami but not necessarily controlled by him. Dark Shadow probably gave the dream creator a few problems, and now they were figuring out different ways to torture the poor guy.

But to force Dark Shadow into a destructive rage?

What the _fuck_ were they trying to do? The motive behind this all was still so elusive—Katsuki couldn't figure it out. And the prospect of doing so was so important to saving their friends, but also terrifying. What kind of mental recovery would they need once saved? How long would _that_ take? Would they be able to return to their studies? Or would they be so broken that they had no other choice but to drop out? Katsuki used to think he didn't care about his stupid classmates, but imagining them unable to pursue their dreams because of the twisted actions of a few people had his stomach twisting into knots.

"Why did they do this?" Ochako whispered, hands on the window.

Katsuki sighed, "I'm not sure if I even wanna know."

He got up and tugged on her waist to force her away from the window. He picked up her hood, which had fallen down when she had stood up, and draped it back over the top of her head. He reached around her to pull the sunglasses that were sitting in her back pocket and slid them onto her nose.

"But," He said, flicking her cheek fondly, "We don't have any other choice but to figure this shit out, huh?"

"They took out over a hundred pro heroes…" Ochako murmured, "They destroyed an entire city…"

"And they couldn't successfully get us, angel," Bakugou reassured her, "They're human and flawed and they have weaknesses. Our first mistake would be to assume that they don't."

"Hah," Ochako breathed, leaning into Katsuki's space, "You're right."

The train stopped just outside of Kosai, and they walked out of the train into the dusty streets. Bakugou pulled up their destination on his phone, and then rattled off the instructions to Ochako as they maneuvered over and around rubble. He made sure she was slightly in front of him, knowing how uneasy he'd feel if he couldn't see her. Although, he still felt pretty on edge due to the strange quiet that overtook the city—there really was no escaping that.

The further they walked, the less torn up the houses and buildings got—pretty soon people started trickling into the surroundings. But even that was scarce. The only people still living just outside of the evacuation radius were those who absolutely refused to leave their own property. Despite the debris sprinkled in the streets, and the dust corrupting their lungs.

"How can they live like this?" Bakugou muttered, mostly to himself.

"This is probably all that they have, Katsuki," Ochako answered firmly, eyes shining with empathy at the children standing at the threshold of their homes, coughing and crying. No one on the streets bore a smile, because their suffering hadn't concluded with the end of the disaster. Hell, it probably hadn't even begun with the disaster. Katsuki mentally kicked himself—Ochako's family struggled financially and so she knew a lot about making due with what she was given. Of course she would be able to see through these people's eyes. Of course she would feel for them in ways Bakugou couldn't.

He pressed his lips into a thin line in case any more stupid shit wanted to escape from his lips.

Their rendezvous point with Tsukauchi wasn't far outside of the evacuation radius, and the detective was waiting there for them when they arrived.

"Hey, you two," Tsukauchi greeted, a small smile on his face, "Fancy meeting you here."

Bakugou rolled his eyes.

"We're not five-year-olds, asshat."

Ochako smacked the back of his head lightly, "Don't talk to him like that!"

"I talk to _everyone_ like that, 'Chako."

Now Ochako was rolling _her_ eyes and, inexplicably, Katsuki's lips were twitching upwards without his consent. Tsukauchi cleared his throat and they both turned to find the policeman regarding them with raised eyebrows. Katsuki huffed, shoving past the officer to what was clearly the man's undercover car parked on the side of the road.

"Hop to, slowpokes," He called after them, claiming the front seat for himself.

Ochako and Tsukauchi followed after him, climbing into the old Chevy. The detective wordlessly checked his mirrors and then put his key in the ignition and started up the car.

"We've looked into Togami Maho's background," Naomasa started amiably, picking up a file from off the dashboard and handing it to Bakugou. Katsuki opened it greedily, drinking in the image of the high school aged girl and committing it to memory. The date on the bottom of the picture told him that it was at least five years old. He flicked through all of the papers as Tsukauchi continued to speak, "She was born and raised in this area, attended four different elementary schools and ten different middle schools—dropped out of high school during her second year and hasn't been heard of since. At least, not when it concerns anything that would involve legal papers: no job, no driver's license, nothing we can trace since her mom is paying for her life insurance. Except for—" Bakugou flipped to the last page in the file.

"She's fucking _covered_ in tattoos," Bakugou remarked, staring down at the newspaper article of Togami in some crazy get up, surrounded by all sorts of weird quirk-bearing animals and other members of what looked like a circus, "And she looks like she's twelve." And a little unhinged, but Bakugou didn't voice that thought.

"Yeah," Naomasa agreed lamely, "She worked in a traveling circus for a while as a contortionist. No application, she was paid in cash, no taxes, again—nothing we could trace. We probably wouldn't of known about this turn in her life if it weren't for face recognition and this newspaper article. She was probably hired initially to enhance the quirks of the other members of the circus—if you read that, it's all about how the show in question tanked after her 'resignation'."

Ochako tapped Bakugou on the shoulder from the backseat, and the blonde obediently handed over the file so that she could see too.

"Something else that's concerning," Tsukauchi changed the subject, "Instead of finding comatose heroes, now we're starting to find bodies. Maimed, shot, suffocated, what have you. Whatever is enhancing this dream quirk has hit its limit, or is just about to."

"Fuck," Bakugou frowned.

"That's…not good," Ochako agreed.

Tsukauchi nodded, a grimace on his face.

"Just," He said, looking serious, "Be careful, alright?"

They nodded, but otherwise didn't say a word.

They pulled into a neighborhood where small, older looking houses lined the streets and punched a nostalgic feeling in your stomach simply from the sheer amount of quaint warmth emanating from each home. Tsukauchi pulled up to a house on the corner—a house with slightly out of control grass and at least four sets of wind chimes.

"This is it," Naomasa informed them, parking on the curbside.

"Aw," Ochako said after stepping out of the car, trying to lighten the mood, "She's got garden gnomes. Cute!"

Bakugou snorted, "I feel bad for the bastard that ends up dealing with your shit taste, 'Chako."

Ochako pouted, "It's not _shit_ taste."

"Beg to differ," Katsuki shot back, as they climbed the rickety wooden steps to the front door. But what he _didn't_ mention is how he has recently been imagining _himself_ being the one dealing with her shit taste.

Tsukauchi cleared his throat, clearly waiting for them to be done. It wasn't until Bakugou let out his distinct _tch_ that the detective knocked on the door. They waited a moment, and then the tale tell sound of incoming footsteps could be heard on the other side of the wood. The door opened to reveal a woman probably in her fifties. And she was the _tiniest_ woman Bakugou had ever laid eyes on. She had silvery hair, although there was a soft tint of purple to it that made it seem ethereal, and lines around her eyes that told of years of optimism and cheeriness. Something about her smile, however, didn't sit right with Bakugou—it didn't match up to the tense set of her shoulders or the way that she was gripping her doorknob like she wanted nothing more than to shut the door in their faces.

"Togami Miho?" Tsukauchi asked politely, towering over like a giant.

She nodded, "How can I help you?"

Naomasa flashed his badge, "We were hoping to ask you a few questions about your daughter."

Togami eyed Bakugou and Ochako, and then forced a smile.

"Of course," She said, opening her door further, "Please come in."

»»-¤-««

Togami seemed reluctant to open up about her daughter and the specifics behind her quirk, which was already suspicious. When Naomasa asked if she knew anything about her daughter's whereabouts, Miho looked at him, tight-lipped, before responding with a passive aggressive, "I haven't seen my daughter in well over seven years, officer." Then, as if realizing how unpleasant that sounded, she forced a smile onto her face and picked up her cup of tea to sip on.

"Ma'am," Tsukauchi sighed as he set down his own cup, sounding completely _done_ with this woman, "You do realize what's currently happening in our country, don't you? How your own city has been _devastated?"_

"I don't understand how my daughter has anything to do with that," She snapped, smiling much too pleasantly in a way that completely juxtaposed her tone.

"We're not fucking _accusing_ her of anything," Katsuki barked, "Not like how the entire fuckin' world is accusing a hero student, who was _obviously_ manipulated, of recklessly destroying an entire city like he just couldn't _help_ himself. We don't have anything to connect your daughter to what's been happening, except her fucking quirk, which is _why_ we've come to you—!"

"I don't like your tone of voice," Miho snapped, "And don't bring that kind of language into _my_ home!"

Bakugou bit his lip, trying to remind himself _why_ he shouldn't take this fucking bait. But he couldn't fucking _help_ himself. "Why are you so _defensive_ , huh?" He snarled, his fingernails digging into his knees painfully.

Ochako placed a hand on his shoulder, dragging him back down to earth with just a touch—and god, how was she so good at _doing_ that?

"Ma'am," Ochako placated in that voice of hers that was so nice and trusting and sugary, "What he's trying to say is that we're not here to blame your daughter for everything that's happened. You want to protect her?"

Togami bit her lip, eyes wet.

"She's my daughter."

"Do _you_ suspect that she has anything to do with what's going on?" Ochako continued softly.

Tears spilled out of Miho's eyes. "I don't _know_ ," She cried, "She hasn't spoken to me in _so_ long—I didn't want to believe it when I saw the news about U.A., but when it just kept getting _bigger_ and _bigger_ I couldn't help but think of little Maho's quirk. I still can't know for sure, but I can't deny that this is _exactly_ how her quirk works. And at this rate, she's gonna _destroy_ herself." She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and used it to wipe at her eyes, "The same way my husband destroyed himself using his _damned_ quirk!"

Bakugou blinked at the woman's sudden outburst, wondering _how_ Ochako managed to get her to spill with only a few words when he and Tsukauchi had literally spent _thirty minutes_ trying to get information out of her.

"B-but," Miho blubbered, "This is so _unlike_ her. She was bullied when she was younger because she was just so _shy_ and _tiny_ —not to mention she was always sick because she couldn't _help_ but use her quirk to help others. But she was never bitter about it—she never spoke ill about her bullies. And I know it might only be a coincidence, but _four_ of her childhood bullies were reported dead in the attack. B-but I-I don't understand why she would be a part of this." She blew into the handkerchief loudly. "She ran off to _find_ herself. Last I heard from her, she was _enjoying_ life. That circus really brought her happiness, and she even found someone there that could counteract the negative effects of her quirk—"

"Is it possible that her quirk could be used to enhance another's quirk against her will?" Naomasa interrupted.

For whatever reason, that made the woman cry _harder_. Bakugou was really starting to believe that they really should just leave the talking to Ochako.

Ochako stood, walking over to Miho to offer herself as a shoulder to cry on when it happened. That same circle of purple light that had taken Tokoyami away on live television encircled Togami where she was sitting. Bakugou blinked when he saw it, how Ochako was _walking into it_ without noticing, and then he was on his feet. The circle blinked once, then twice, and Bakugou was tackling Ochako to the ground at the third blink just as the floor underneath Miho opened up and swallowed the crying woman whole. Without even a second to recover, the same ring was encircling surrounding where they lay on the ground.

Bakugou hopped to his knees, pulling at Ochako's arm.

"Get _up_ ," He demanded urgently. She blinked up at him in confusion, and Bakugou growled at her as the light began to blink once again. He threw himself at her, grabbing onto her hips and rolling the both of them out of the way. They narrowly missed being sucked into the warp that opened up just inches beside them. They weren't given any time to recover once again when that infuriating light circled them incessantly. Thankfully, Ochako got with the program this time and they were both to their feet and running for the backdoor because the oncoming portal was blocking their way to the front door. Bakugou glanced behind him to check on Naomasa. He was blinking at the spectacle before him, and pulling out his phone. Bakugou watched as he exited through the front door, turning back around only to nod at he and Ochako.

"Fucking _run_ ," He barked, setting off an explosion at the sliding glass door which shattered into thousands of tiny pieces of glass.

Ochako nodded, scrambling through the smoke and glass and pulling Katsuki with her.

"How do they know where we _are?"_ She huffed, jumping over a portal that had opened right where she was about to step. She touched her hands together to activate her quirk on herself, and then jumped over Togami's fence. Bakugou followed closely behind, aided by the help of an explosion or two.

"Should we split up?" Ochako asked as she ran towards the front of the house to where Tsukauchi's car was still parked, "It looks like whatever this quirk is can only work on one portal at a time."

"Fuck no!" Bakugou retorted, wondering if Naomasa noticed the same thing and that's why he was nowhere to be seen. But if he left the car…

"We stick together! Come on, cheeks!" He yelled, steering her towards the car. He'd noticed that the bigger portals seemed to take longer to create—the both of them in as something as big as a car might just be their saving grace. He opened the passenger side for her before jumping over the entire car and climbing in the front seat.

" _You're_ gonna drive?" She inquired, worriedly peeking out at the circle of light drawing itself around the car.

Bakugou let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Tsukauchi had indeed left them the keys. He turned them in the ignition, thankful that this wasn't a hunk a junk and started up like beauty. He put the car into drive, and sped off just as the portal began to blink.

"Do you even _have_ a license?" Ochako shrieked as Bakugou rounded a corner with too much momentum, nearly taking out a stop sign.

"Does it _matter?"_ He yelled back, "A _police officer_ left us with the car! I don't think he's intending to arrest us over this!" He swerved out of the way of another portal that had opened up strategically in front of them. He thrust his phone into Ochako's stomach. "Call Camie!" He instructed, driving through the neighborhood like a fucking madman.

"Incoming call!" She informs him, fumbling with the phone to answer and put it on speaker phone, "Tsukauchi?"

"Don't stop until I give you my signal," He said and then hung up.

"Hah," Bakugou laughed to himself, a grin on his face as he swerved to miss another goddamned circle of light—good thing there weren't many people still occupying this city and that at least made avoiding these attacks easier, "These smart fuckers are forcing us to ground zero." There won't be any way for them to weave through all that debris in the car—they were attempting to back them in a corner. But too bad for them that they were dealing with him and Ochako and not anybody stupid.

Ochako busied herself with calling Camie, while Bakugou paid attention to whatever tricky movements these portals were gonna make next.

"Camie!" Ochako yelled into the phone, "We need backup! Get in touch with officer Tsukauchi!" She hung up so that she could offer her attention to the situation at hand, and blinked as she saw that they were steadily heading into territory with more and more rubble. Without really thinking much of it, Ochako activated her quirk on herself and Bakugou—and then kicked herself for not thinking of this earlier.

"Give me the wheel!" She barked at him, attempting to throw herself at him but finding it difficult now that she was weightless.

"I _know_ that you can't drive, 'Chako!" He argued, floating in his seat but using the steering wheel as an anchor.

"Doesn't matter!" She snapped, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and pulling him out of the seat—easy to do when he didn't weigh a thing. She smirked—he looked like he was ready to bite her. When she successfully switched places with him, she immediately rolled down the window and smacked her hand against the side of the car, activating her quirk on it. Then she turned to him with orders spilling out of her mouth, "Break through the back window and set off an explosion to get us off the ground!"

Bakugou's eyes widened as he figured out her plan, and then he nodded and maneuvered himself into the back seat. He threw a punch at the back window and set off an explosion just before his skin made contact with the glass. Just like the glass door, it shattered under the force. Then he threw himself partway out of the car, hooking his foot on one of the headrests so her wouldn't float away, raised both his hands up and aimed explosions towards the ground. The car immediately floated upwards like it was on a see-saw.

"Open your door," He yelled at her, folding his body through the window and crawling around the car like a spider. Ochako did as he instructed, and he held on to her leg with one hand as he dangled from the bottom of the car. He used his other hand to reach out to the middle of the vehicle and set off another downwards explosion. They floated up higher.

Directly below them, there was a car-sized portal open through which they could peer through. Bakugou didn't see much before it closed up—but he thought he saw someone smirking up at them. A girl with dark blue hair—wearing all black—seated casually on the floor of some darkened room. But before he could make out anything else, the portal vanished. Bakugou cursed, and then pulled himself back into the car, climbing over Ochako in the process.

His phone blared, and Ochako answered it once again.

"Hello?" She said, "Tsukauchi?" And then to herself: "Lemme get this on speakerphone."

"That was smart of you two," Naomasa chirped a moment later once Ochako informed the man that he could now be heard by both of them, sounding a little like he was running, "I have back up coming, but these damned portals are following _me_ now."

"Shit," Bakugou murmured—they were so focused on outsmarting the bad guys, that they'd forgotten that Tsukauchi could just as easily be targeted.

"Don't worry about me though," He continued through huffs of breath, "I've seen this portal quirk before—no time to explain anything else. I'll get back to you once I'm in the clear. Stay airborne as long as you possibly can."

He hung up again.

"You feeling sick, angel?" Bakugou asked, placing a steadying hand on her neck and taking note of how pale her face had become.

"M'fine," She insisted.

Bakugou rolled his eyes fondly, "Just let me know if ya need a minute."

"I can _do_ this," Ochako maintained, like she was trying to convince herself rather than convince Bakugou.

"I know," He said quietly, squeezing her neck lightly, "You don't have to tell _me_ that."

"I know," She breathed back, smiling slightly.

He bit his lip—something stupid and sappy was about to spill out of his mouth. Like how _beautiful_ her smile was and how _strong_ she was, and all kinds of other shit. One of these days he's not going to be able to stop himself, and he'll definitely end up saying something embarrassing right to her face. But for now, he kept the words back.

What was stopping him?

Probably the fact that every night he dreamed about the life that played out in his head against his will. How he was undeniably alone in that world, except for Deku who has always made it a point to stay in Bakugou's business. How sometimes he still had a hard time discerning between that fake life and what actually existed around him. How he trusted her enough to allow her to touch him because her physical presence helped anchor him to this reality and he didn't want to risk losing that do to his budding feelings for her. Especially if she was still hung up over Deku.

He was _fucked_. Essentially.

His phone blaring once again, pulled him out of his thoughts. The caller ID informed them that it was Camie calling this time round.

"What?" He barked into the receiver before quickly tapping on the speakerphone button.

"Dudes," Camie chirped, "Tsukauchi just let me know that he and all these other police bros found the chick with the portal quirk and have got her detained. You should be, like, good to go now. Also, Tsukauchi asks you lower his car to the ground gently—there's a tracker in there but the car needs to be _running_ for it to work. Also, be careful. These villains probably know your location, which is bad news bears because we _certainly_ don't know theirs. I'm on my way, and I'm sure they are too but it'll be a minute—"

" _Alright_ already!" Bakugou interrupted, "Keep in fucking touch!"

Camie laughed, "Will do, Bakubabe! Give 'Chako a smooch for me!"

Bakugou flushed, "Give her your own damned smooch!"

"Peace!"

The line went dead, and Bakugou glanced up at Ochako. She looked nauseous, but she also had a dusting of pink across her cheeks that made him want to actually give her a smooch or two.

While they had been studying at U.A. during their second year, Ochako had practiced relentlessly on how to cancel out only _some_ of the gravity on objects. Same goes for giving back the gravity in intervals. Which is what she was doing now—and Bakugou waited patiently until the car was back on the ground, before hopping out and rushing to her side of the car to help her do the same. She was visibly weakened from the exertion of holding both of them and an entire fucking car up for so long, and Bakugou caught her by the waist before she could lose her footing.

"We gotta go, Katsuki," She mumbled into his neck.

She was right about that. Something about the atmosphere around them was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

Without another thought, Katsuki scooped her up into his arms.

"Ah ah ah," A voice came from behind them in a berating tone.

Katsuki whipped his head around, adrenaline rushing through him anew.

There stood two redheaded girls—sisters probably, if the way their noses hooked identically meant anything—smirking at them like they'd already won the battle. Katsuki's fight or flight instincts instantly kicked in, and he turned away from them and pushed his legs as fast as he could in a last ditch effort to get away from them. He couldn't pinpoint where he knew them from, but they seemed familiar—and they were certainly not good news, but he had a strong gut feeling that they were the villains behind this all. The ones he and Ochako had been trying to remember for _weeks_.

He heard twin laughs from behind him.

"Sleep, Bakugou Katsuki," One called after him.

Everything went black.

»»-¤-««

Ochako hit the pavement with the weight of Katsuki on top of her. And yeah, she was nauseous, but she wasn't _incapable_. She tapped Katsuki to activate her quirk on him, and then hefted him over her shoulders.

It was a little terrifying to watch Katsuki go down simply because someone commanded him to and she was a little confused as to why they weren't pulling the same trick on her, but she took the opportunity for what it was: a chance to escape without losing her friend as well.

She glanced behind her—one of the girls had seated herself on the ground, her eyes were closed and her hair was floating around her head numinously. Must have been her quirk—she was probably the one that got inside your head, was probably messing with Katsuki's brain at this very moment.

The other girl was slowly stalking after her and Bakugou.

Ochako grunted. Katsuki had managed to put _some_ distance between them and the redheaded girls, and so she was going to use that distance to her advantage. She ducked behind a sizeable pile of rubble, and then used her quirk to maneuver through wood, plaster, stone and all other kinds of other shit that she made sure to drop haphazardly to make it harder for that creepy redhead to follow her.

Katsuki was twitching on her shoulders, and she heard his breath hitch from some horror that she couldn't see.

She grimaced.

Camie and the police force were on their way—she just had to run away long enough for them to get here.

Then Katsuki made a noise that had her rethinking whether or not it was a _horror_ he was seeing.

He _moaned_. Low and guttural and right in her ear.

And he kept at it—making little desperate noises like that, like he was actually in pure utter _bliss_. 'And why wake up from that, 'Chako? You've clearly got this handled, so I'll just keep dreaming about this _magnificent_ steamy occasion I've obviously got going on in my head.'

Ochako was never going to let him live this down.

»»-¤-««

Bakugou knew that he was dreaming as soon as he looked around at what was surrounding him. But no matter how hard he tried to wake himself up, he couldn't. It was like someone had a grip on his mind and was pulling the strings to his own damned brain from behind the curtains.

"Goddammit," He muttered.

He was in a house. A _nice_ house. It wasn't _huge_. But it was enough. He was in what looked like the entryway, holding a coat out towards a coatrack. There was a staircase in front of him, a dining room to his left, and a wide hallway that looked like it led to a living room. He was sure that somewhere behind the staircase and wall in front of him, there was probably a kitchen. When he looked up, a modern chandelier twinkled at him.

He dropped the coat on the floor, huffed, and moved towards the living room.

As he walked, he found that he'd been right. There was a kitchen that conjoined with the living room, and it was beautiful. Grey granite countertops, dark-stained wood shelving and cupboards. Sleek appliances. It was fucking perfect.

 _But it's not real_.

He brought his hand up to rub his eyes, as if doing so would make the scene change or maybe even wake him up—it did neither. But it did alert him that he was apparently holding onto a bouquet of red roses in the hand that hadn't been holding onto his coat earlier.

"The fuck?" He inquired, honestly perplexed by the flowers.

Red roses were generally saved for significant others—but Bakugou was familiar with this fake world bullshit. He should be all alone, there shouldn't be anyone waiting for him at—

Warmth pressed up against his back, and he stiffened immediately. That is, until the smooth voice of the person behind him met his ears.

"Mm," They greeted, hands snaking around his midsection and settling underneath his shirt, "Hi." A pair of soft lips met the nape of his neck and left a series of bites and kisses where they travelled. Katsuki, already putty in her hands, pushed into the contact like a moron.

But, god, it felt so _real_.

One of the hands under his shirt skirted upwards, trailing over hard muscles and searing into his skin like hot iron. His breath hitched when that small hand brushed over his nipple. This was intimacy that he's never known, this is what he'd been _missing_ in his so-called perfect world.

 _This isn't real_.

But he _wanted_ it to be real.

"Ochako," He murmured, turning around in her arms and offering her the bouquet of roses. He was kicking himself for giving in so easily, but he figured since he already couldn't wake up that he might as well indulge his subconscious. This might be the closest he ever gets to having this with her, and he was oddly…okay with that.

"For me?" She inquired as she took the flowers out of his hand, lips curved upwards into a loving smile that honest to god took his breath away. Her free hand slid up his back and over his shoulder and into his hair, and she pulled him down to press their lips together. The contact between their lips was hot and welcoming, and they both immediately opened their mouths to deepen it. And Bakugou was in _heaven._ She pulled back only for a moment to say, "Thank you, Katsuki."

She stepped forward, leaving the flowers on the dinner table, and pressing into him until he was walking backwards, their lips still locked together in a dance and their hands wandering. His legs kept going until the granite of the countertop dug into his lower back and their hips were firmly slotted together.

He moaned, grabbing a handful of her ass because he's _always_ wanted to get his hands on it. Her lips moved from his mouth to his jaw and trailed down his neck. She sunk her teeth into where his trapezius met his neck, urging even more noises from his throat. She felt so good, what she was doing was _so_ good.

"Katsuki," She whispered, painting kisses up to his ear, "You're so _good_ for me."

He _groaned_ at that, and her nimble fingers trailed down his front to brush over where his dick was straining inside of his pants. His head flew back at the contact, and he had to bite his lip to stop the moan that was trying to push its way out of his throat.

"So _perfect_ for me," She whispered into his neck, sucking on the skin there at the same time she squeezed the bulge in his slacks.

At that utterance and the way she was making his body feel _on fire_ , Bakugou _knew_ that he wanted nothing more than to fall apart at her fingertips. She was clearly in charge here, and he was going fucking wild over it.

Everything melted away except for her touch. The house was a blur, unfocused and distant. The roses were dripping away, dark like blood and the feelings being stirred up within him. Ochako was the only thing that mattered, the only thing he could cling onto. Everything else was irrelevant.

This could be real…right?

»»-¤-««

"You're really enjoying yourself, huh?" Ochako muttered with a red face to a groaning, twitching Bakugou. She'd managed to find a pretty good place to hide, and she'd laid Bakugou down so that he could ride out his dream while she sat several feet away while he did so. Honestly, his pleasured noises were becoming a little too much to bear when they were _right in her ear_ and being hot and bothered didn't really help much when she was trying to _run away_.

She brought her hands to her glowing face, and cursed her luck for getting herself into _such_ an embarrassing situation. She couldn't _imagine_ if the tables were turned, and it was _Bakugou_ carting around her moaning ass. He'll probably never want to look her in the eye again, after all this is over with!

She froze when she heard voices nearby, and she frantically glanced towards Bakugou as if to _will_ him to keep his noises to a minimum.

"Fumi," One of the villains called to the other, voice slightly muffled through all the rubble that Ochako was hiding behind, "Wait! Take her alive—she might be of use after all."

"Hana?" The other asked, sounding surprised and a little cross, "Done so soon?"

There was a responding laugh—mocking in nature—that had goose bumps trailing up Ochako's arms.

"He was fucking _easy_ ," The one named Hana said, "I hardly had to do anything for him to give in. Rather convenient for us that he discovered that he could _feel_ , hah? Devotion makes it so much easier to manipulate our little pawns." Ochako glanced at Bakugou, who's mouth was _definitely_ open in a tiny 'o' of pleasure. It made her face heat up just looking at him. But she found it really hard to believe that Katsuki would give in to this chick's quirk or whatever the hell was at play because of a _sex dream_.

That Hana chick had to have done something to him.

Bakugou sighed—at least he had the decency to do so quietly, but Ochako still tensed up and listened intently to the villain's conversation to see if they noticed the noise.

"Mm," Bakugou hummed, his fingers twitching like he was grabbing onto something in his dream, "Ochako."

It was spoken so quietly, that even _she_ almost missed it.

Her eyes widened.

Bakugou was dreaming _about her_.

"You idiot," She breathed, reaching over to run her fingers lightly through his hair.

»»-¤-««

Ochako pulled away from him, her hands resting comfortably on his chest—and she smiled up at him like seeing him was the single greatest thing that ever happened to her. His heart was a fucking riot, beating wildly against his ribcage.

"Happy anniversary," She mumbled, reaching up on her tiptoes to nuzzle her nose against his—it was cute and affectionate and so unlike how she greeted him only a moment ago. But it had virtually the same effect on him—he was still putty in her hands.

Was this what it was like to be married to Uraraka Ochako?

His arms snaked loosely around her waist, and he smiled back at her.

"You're so beautiful, Ochako," He whispered, like it was a secret between the two of them—that he could actually find anything in this world beautiful, that he could see so much beauty in one fucking person, "Are you.." He gulped, some misplaced insecurity escaping from somewhere deep inside of him, "Are you happy with me?"

"Of course I am, Katsuki," She answered back, her thumb rubbing little patterns onto the skin of his neck possessively and her hips pressing more firmly into his, "Why wouldn't I be?"

His lips felt suddenly dry—unbearably so.

He glanced behind her at the scenery surrounding them. The picture was too perfect—wasn't Ochako supposed to have shit taste? Weren't they supposed to be in this constant battle of driving the other the furthest up the wall? Wasn't _he_ supposed to be an asshole and wasn't _she_ completely unattainable for someone like him?

"I-I don't know," He said honestly, eyes wide as he stared down the bouquet of roses that were still sitting on the table. He was racking his brain for when he had bought them—where had he even been before this? What was his life beyond this beautiful woman in his arms?

Were roses _supposed_ to glimmer like that?

»»-¤-««

"Katsuki," Ochako whispered, crawling over to the blonde and digging her face into his neck. He'd stopped moaning and sighing, and the whimpers coming out of his throat were now _definitely_ ones of distress rather than of bliss. The sounds were heartbreaking to hear coming from someone as strong as Bakugou, but they also flooded her with relief. It meant he was stilling fighting. "Katsuki. I'm here." She tapped his face, remembering what he had done to wake her from her own fake world weeks ago.

"Don't give in," She demanded, tapping him just a little harder in the hopes that it would _do_ something. Distantly she could hear that villain still bragging in the background, but her attention was locked onto the explosive blonde man that she'd become so close to. She could feel the sting of tears at the corner of her eyes, "It's not real. _I'm_ real, I'm here. Wake _up_."

»»-¤-««

"Katsuki?" Ochako asked, invading his space and blocking his line of sight from everything that lay behind her, "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" He grunted, trying to ignore how everything was literally screaming at him to press his body against hers once again so that he could focus on the one little portion of his brain that was telling him that something was wrong. He glanced down at Ochako and noticed that, much like the roses, she was also glimmering in the low lighting of the kitchen.

"Hey," He said suddenly, his arms leaving her waist so that he could grip the granite on either side of him, "Do you like garden gnomes?" He's not sure what possessed him to ask such an asinine question, but he knew without a doubt that it was important for him to know her answer.

Ochako seemed perplexed by the question but opened her mouth to reply nonetheless, "Who _actually_ likes garden gnomes?"

The fog that had entered his mind cleared in an instant.

"This isn't real," He said to himself.

Not-Ochako quirked her head to the side, "What? Of course this is real."

"You're not even from my own damned brain," He growled, pushing her away and cursing himself for getting lost in the dream, "You were put here, huh? By that redheaded bitch? _My_ Ochako likes garden gnomes. She thinks the little fuckers are cute." He glared at her, debating within himself on if it's possible to interrogate a figment of someone else's imagination that's been forced inside his own head, "Any Ochako _my_ brain conjured up would stubbornly hold onto that little detail."

Not-Ochako's sparkling eyes settled into something infinitely darker, and she glowered at him in a way that didn't look right on her face. There was no hint of competitive determination, no inkling that she was showing concern or remorse. No sign of _Ochako_. The look in her eyes was unadulterated hatred. And he hated that villain bitch for contaminating Ochako's face with something so _awful_.

"So you're not as dumb as you look," She bit out mockingly, her voice on the cusp of demonic, "But you're too late."

The edges of his vision began to darken; the lights on the ceiling began to dim as if not-Ochako herself were sucking the life out of them. The roses were quite literally melting away onto the wood flooring into a puddle that alarmingly resembled blood. Ochako's irises had become entirely black and soulless. The room was seemingly closing in on them, and Bakugou's throat suddenly felt like it was plugged up with _sludge_. He wondered idly what would happen to him if he were to die in this world, but no matter how much he struggled for air—no matter how unbearable it became, until he was practically _begging_ some higher being for death to take him just to make this suffocation _stop_ —he didn't die.

He fell to his knees, grasping at his own throat.

When he looked up, he saw himself where Ochako had been standing. Tears sprung to his eyes as he realized that this dream had turned into his worst fucking nightmare and that the Bakugou standing before him was what he feared he could become—a hateful, villainous shitbag who stepped on others born less fortunate than him just because he could. A kid who never fucking got over himself.

Katsuki tried to breathe, but some imaginary force was still suffocating him while smoke slowly rose up into the air. The smoke was coming from the fake-Bakugou's hands in continuous waves. It was coming from his _own_ motherfucking hands. It burned his nostrils and his throat, and the mirror image of himself did nothing but sneer down at him.

"You're pathetic," He degraded, explosions rippling from his palms, " _Weak_." He bared his teeth, and his mouth was red with blood, "You should be erased from this fucking world." Bakugou shook his head, pleading with himself to not be like this—begging for him to wipe that entitled _look_ off his face.

"You want to fuckin' escape?" His counterpart snapped at him, roughly grabbing him by the hairs on his neck and yanking, "It's too late for that, asshole. I'm in your head, and you were the one who let me in like the moron you are. You're fuckin' stuck with me! You either beat me like a goddamned man, or you get saved like a thumb-sucking baby." He laughed sardonically, "As if that round faced _bitch_ could even save you. And if not her, then _who?_ You have _no one._ "

Bakugou coughed and yanked his head away from his counterpart's hand.

"You—hah—wanna go, _jackass?"_ Katsuki wheezed at this villainous version of himself in between coughs. He forced a smile onto his face despite the pain emanating from his lungs, "I'll fight myself and _still_ be number fucking one." He spat at the villain's feet and grinned up at the bastard with wild red eyes, "So bring it the fuck on already."

»»-¤-««

"Hana," The other one—Fumi—started in exasperation, recapturing Ochako's attention from her hiding place not too far away, "You fucking imbecile, you were supposed to stay in his dream to make sure he doesn't wake the fuck up!" Ochako hunched over, as if to guard Bakugou from them should they find out her hiding place. She relaxed a moment later when it became apparent that they were too distracted by their bickering.

"You didn't see what I did, Fumi," Hana insisted, "He was gone in under thirty seconds—he took the bait and now my quirk is inside his fucking head—"

"For how long, dipshit?" Fumi fired back, "You know what these shitty kids have gone through! We can't just assume they're not gonna fight back with their fucking track record. And with them hot on Togami's tail we're being forced to accelerate our fucking timetable—!"

"Fuck!" Hana interrupted, "Did you hear that?"

Ochako strained her ears, wondering if they could hear the way that her heart was thundering against her chest. As she set her focus outside of her own anxieties, the unmistakable sound of footsteps could be heard as well as the rumbling of rubble being moved aside.

"It's the police," Fumi responded, "And we don't have Bakugou _or_ Uraraka."

"Really wish that annoying detective hadn't found Coordinate so easily…"

" _I_ really wish that you would have followed the fucking plan. Why do you have to ruin everything? I'm the fucking smarter one—why did you get the shitty quirk that requires brainpower, huh?"

"Is it really the end of the world if we don't catch those twerps?" Hana inquired, voice slowly fading as they walked away from the scene, "We've got fucking _Deku_ and if everything goes as planned then no one will be able to stop us…"

The last thing Ochako heard before their voices faded away completely was Fumi muttering an annoyed, "It's not about those two trying to _stop_ us, idiot—"

»»-¤-««

The police searched the entirety of the city and didn't find a trace of the two redheaded villains. Ochako only removed her and Bakugou from her hiding place when Katsuki's phone went off in his pocket and Tsukauchi was on the other line telling her that they had the perimeter locked down. He pulled her aside, asking her about what had happened. She explained that the villains were most likely sisters, and that one knocked Bakugou out just by telling him to sleep and that the other somehow planted some kind of dream parasite in his head—or at least that's what she gathered from context.

Katsuki was taken to a hospital and declared to be in the same comatose state as the pro heroes that had fallen under the effects of this quirk previously. He was put on life support, and was being watched by Ochako and the police force and an assortment of pro heroes in case those villains tried to take him away again.

Ochako spent most of her time working with Tsukauchi to figure out this case (their current mission being trying to get information out of the villain that called herself Coordinate), and the time not spent grinding herself to the nub she was at Bakugou's bedside. She'd hold onto his hand and cry quietly into his sheets until she fell asleep leaning against his legs. And even though he wasn't awake telling her to fuck off and smile, she still couldn't find solace enough to sleep without him nearby. And she liked to believe that her presence helped him too. He still whimpered and grunted in pain every so often, but whenever she would grab onto his hand or stroke his hair those noises would lessen and his facial features softened.

"Don't stop fighting, Kacchan," She'd whisper to him, "You hear me? _Win."_


	4. rematch

**_chapter four:_** **rematch**

Coordinate, a girl with blue hair and mischievous eyes, was a real pain in Ochako's ass.

Tsukauchi sighed from Ochako's left—they'd been trying to get information out of this chick for an _hour_ , and so far all they had to show from it was a massive headache and the realization that they hadn't know what it meant to be truly hangry until they had to deal with this girl on an empty stomach.

"Look, Miya—" He started from across the sleek metal table, getting interrupted for the nth time.

" _Coordinate_."

"…How old are you, again?" Naomasa asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Fourteen."

"And you met Kawaguchi Hana and Fumi…where?"

"They sought me out," She told him, matter-of-fact, "As if I would offer my services for _free_." Coordinate snorted.

Tsukauchi didn't even want to _begin_ decoding that.

"What exactly did they offer you for your, um, services?"

Coordinate grinned, "Not telling."

Ochako raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"You do realize that you're facing a lifetime in jail…right?" Uraraka asked the girl, just to make sure they were all on the same page here.

"Only if you catch me," Coordinate disagreed, biting her cheek mockingly.

"We _did_ catch you," Tsukauchi pointed out, rubbing his temples.

Coordinate shrugged, flicking her blue hair over her shoulder, "For now."

"For _ever_ ," Ochako persisted, getting real tired of this girl's games.

"Whatever," Coordinate waved her hand in Ochako's face to dismiss her, "Look. I'm hungry and tired. Can I go to my shiny new cell now, please?"

Tsukauchi brought a hand to his chin in thought, "It's almost like you _want_ to be here."

Coordinate shrugged again, folding her arms and staring off into space.

Ochako groaned.

»»-¤-««

Tsukauchi seemed almost worried for the girl—he told Ochako later on that he'd seen the girl's quirk before in petty robberies, but had always somehow managed to escape. Her quirk made her fickle and nearly impossible to catch. And yet, this time around, detaining her had been _easy_. Too easy.

"So what do you think it means?" Ochako asked.

"I think it means," Naomasa said with his eyebrows pulled down, "Either that she was trying to escape, or this all a part of their plan."

»»-¤-««

Katsuki had been out for the count for a _week_ when Aizawa and All Might showed up to the police station with a handful of their students (and students from the grades below them and from Shiketsu high) in tow. Tsukauchi called Ochako on Bakugou's phone to notify her of their appearance and when she saw the men—looking much more rugged than usual—she nearly couldn't stop herself from throwing herself on them in a hug. She was just so _happy_ to see them she couldn't contain it. Seeing them brought her more hope than she's known within the past month.

"Uraraka," Aizawa greeted stiffly, "Tsukauchi informed us about you and Bakugou."

"Aizawa-sensei," Ochako blubbered, tears flowing freely from her eyes, "It's so good to see you!" Okay, she couldn't resist—she threw her arms around the man and cried into the fabric of his shirt. Aizawa stiffened, but didn't push her away. All Might was standing a few feet away, smiling gently at the display.

"Your parents are safe," Aizawa grunted out, trying to comfort her as best as he could, "As well as Bakugou's."

She cried harder at that, clutching onto his sleeve desperately.

"W-who else?" She asked, pulling away slightly.

Aizawa grimaced, eyes hard like he was upset with himself.

"We managed to save everyone being held in our facility," All Might informed her, his gaunt eyes boring deep into her, "But that wasn't everyone—we speculate that there are at least two more facilities similar to ours. We were only able to escape because we were woken up by a young lady who'd been brainwashed into siding with the villains. She somehow snapped out of it and then woke us up when she'd been left alone at our facility."

Ochako blinked at that, and her hand that she'd brought up to rub at her nose froze at this news.

"She…woke you up? How?"

"Her quirk," Aizawa explained, "Her sisters are apparently the masterminds behind this all—from what we've gathered from her, one of her sisters can force anyone to sleep by command as long as she knows their name while the other can then infect their mind with some sort of bug that manipulates the nature of your dreams and keeps you unconscious."

"Is she…with you?" Ochako asked.

"She is being questioned by Tsukauchi as we speak."

Her heart clenched, knowing that this stranger had the capacity to wake Bakugou from his hellish sleep. She could feel the sting of tears even stronger at the corner of her eyes, and her fist clenched together at her sides as if to keep her anchored in the present. "Who else came with you?"

"From our class…" All Might started, a deep frown set on his face, "Kirishima, Jirou, Shinsou, and Tokoyami…"

Ochako gulped, "How is…Tokoyami?"

"Not good," Aizawa responded, eyes shining with the need to avenge the wrongs that had been committed to his student, "None of them are good. Tokoyami's torture was particularly cruel and he's blaming himself for things that aren't his fault—but these sociopathic villains have given each and every student their own personal and specific torment involving copious amounts of mental degradation and manipulation."

"What are they trying to do?" Ochako whispered, not even bothering to wipe away the tears that were streaming down her cheeks.

The muscle in Aizawa's jaw was clenched as if he was clenching his jaw together in attempt to suppress the obvious rage in his eyes.

"From what Akiko told us," He said, voice dark—she has only heard her teacher speak so unrestrained and threatening a handful of times, all of which were when villains or his students' own idiotic choices were putting their lives in danger, "They were attempting to take the next generation of heroes and turn them into villains by distorting their very perception of reality."

Akiko must have been the sister of those other two lunatics that they mentioned—and if she was in the know on what they were planning, Ochako could do nothing but accept this information as the truth.

"Oh my god," She whispered, throwing her arms around All Might next. His long arms fell onto her shoulders like a fortress.

»»-¤-««

Aizawa escorted her and All Might to the hospital a couple hours later, insistent that the retired hero get checked up after being held captive for so long. Ochako bowed to them in thanks before parting ways to go visit her parents—all of those who had been extracted from the clutches of the villains had been sent to the hospital as soon as they made it to Musutafu. When she met up with them in the waiting area, she threw her arms around them and cried from the sheer amount of happiness knowing that they were safe and in her arms brought her.

She cried harder when they told her that they were proud of her.

"Mom," She sniffled, pulling back enough so that she could see their faces, "Dad. I'm so glad that you're safe."

Her dad ruffled her hair, and smiled, "We're sorry we worried you, honey. But we're fine now."

"We're under Aizawa's protection," Her mom assured her, tucking Ochako's hair behind her ear, "And yours, beautiful."

"Which means that we'll definitely be protected!" Dad proclaimed proudly, "Our Ochako is the toughest hero around!"

Ochako laughed, watery and broken but undeniably elated.

They got lunch together in the hospital because it was cheaper, and Ochako enjoyed just being in their presence. Even when lunatics hadn't kidnapped them, the brunette only ever got to see them every so often. Most of the time, they communicated over the phone due to how far they lived away from U.A.

She parted ways with them to wander over to Bakugou's hospital room, at peace with knowing that she could see them again soon.

When she opened the door to Katsuki's room, she wasn't exactly surprised to see Kirishima sitting next to his bed with a frown on his face—she was, however, a little caught off guard by Jirou, Shinsou and Tokoyami also hovering behind the redhead. She froze upon seeing them, but they hardly even twitched when Ochako opened the door. She regarded them, recognizing that haunting look in their eyes. Kirishima and Jirou both looked to be holding back tears, while Shinsou and Tokoyami both frowned at the ground.

"Hey," Ochako said softly, not wanting to startle them. She walked hesitantly over to Jirou, because she really looked like she needed a shoulder to cry on, and held out her arms to the other girl. Jirou, who was usually so reserved especially when it came to seeking out comfort, wrapped her arms around Ochako's waist and cried quietly into her clavicle. Ochako brushed her fingers through dark hair, and eyed the boys over Jirou's head.

"When did Bakugou go down?" Tokoyami inquired, hoodie over his head—he was still technically wanted for manslaughter even though Aizawa had told her that Tsukauchi was working on getting his charges removed, and was therefore trying to keep a low profile. Although Ochako's almost certain that he hasn't gotten much trouble over it—the entire police force and the remaining active pro heroes have decidedly ignored the fact that he's wanted since the Kosai incident.

"About a week ago," Ochako answered, guiding Jirou over to the couch and sitting down with the other girl still in her arms.

Kirishima shook his head, "Dammit."

"What?" Ochako whispered, "He'll wake up, won't he?"

"Yeah," Shinsou said, "But the first time's easy. When those goddamned bastards woke us up for the second, third, fourth times against our will—well, each time it was the most painful thing I've ever been put through, and it just kept getting worse." Ochako shivered at his words. It was no secret that Shinsou's been through shit, so for him to word it like he was…

"The longer you're under, the worse it is," Kirishima added, "They never had any of us sleeping for longer than three days…a whole week…fuck."

Ochako gulped, glancing over at Bakugou's twitching face as he battled the demons inside of his head, sound asleep.

"He'll be okay," She asked hesitantly, "Right?"

"He's Bakugou," Kirishima affirmed with wet eyes, "Of course he'll be okay. But he hates worrying everyone with his own demons; I'm afraid he's gonna end up holding onto a lot of negative emotions unnecessarily."

Ochako's frown deepened at that—Katsuki had actually been doing well in this regard recently; partly because of the promised he made to be honest with her. But part of her believed that whatever fake life had been implanted in his brain by those girls had made him realize how much he needed to rely on others to find lasting happiness. She hoped whatever he was combatting within himself now wouldn't make him backtrack down this path of being more forthcoming and even a little vulnerable.

"Is there any way to wake him up without Akiko's help? Would that be easier for him?" Ochako inquired further.

Shinsou shrugged, "Not sure. They had some guy who's quirk manipulated our memories—if we ever cracked their code, I'm sure they wouldn't let us remember it." His eyebrows scrunched together, as if he was trying to remember a circumstance in particular—but even Ochako knew how difficult that was after having these villains in your head. Shinsou shook his head, as if to tell himself to focus on the discussion at hand, "Means there's no way for us to know for sure if waking up on our own accord doesn't hurt like a bitch."

Stumped, Ochako rested her cheek on Jirou's hair. They were all silent for a long while, staring at Bakugou like he somehow held all the answers to what was going on. Eventually Jirou's tears petered out, and she eventually fell asleep along the length of the couch. Ochako moved over to perch herself on the side of the bed next to Bakugou. She clasped her hand with the blonde's, and ignored the raised eyebrows from the boys in the room. Ochako wasn't about to give up this particular comfort just because there were a few prying eyes.

"Why were you separated from everyone else?" She asked eventually, stroking her thumb along the back of Bakugou's hand like she's done a thousand times before.

The three boys shared a heavy look between them, and then glanced up at Ochako.

"They had a harder time with us, I think," Shinsou spoke, hand raised so that he could slide it through his unruly locks, "They were trying to condition us, you know. Mess with our memories—turn us into villains." A breath of air left his mouth, like he was amused at the notion, "Like I was going to take that bait after how hard I worked to get into the hero course."

"Their quirks worked fine on me," Tokoyami muttered, "But they couldn't keep a lid on Dark Shadow." Ochako grimaced at that—Bakugou's speculations on why they had set Dark Shadow loose on Kosai were spot on, it seemed.

"Pretty sure Jirou's quirk also saved her ass," Shinsou continued, obviously not wanting to dwell on what Tokoyami's untamable quirk forced the villains to do in retaliation, "Subconsciously she'd use it and input into the real world—they messed with her memories the most because she probably heard more than they wanted her to."

Ochako glanced at Kirishima, who's remained oddly silent through the discussion. She didn't want to pry if it was a hard subject, but at the same time any information they had on the different effects of this quirk and the villains' reactions were important and could be a game changer.

"What about you, Kiri?" She asked softly, hoping he knew that he didn't _have_ to answer if he didn't want to.

Kirishima's hands were balled into fists on his knees, and he shut his eyes tightly at her question. He shrugged eventually though, and Ochako didn't press the issue do to the tears she could see that were streaming down his face.

"What's your story, huh?" Shinsou inquired, directing the conversation away from the redhead, "How did you and Bakugou get away?"

"Yeah," Tokoyami chimed, glaring at the ceiling, "When we heard that you guys were here, we were _shocked_. We only managed to escape by the grace of Akiko. If she hadn't been there, we'd all be stuck in their warehouse of torture still."

"Hah," Ochako breathed, wondering how to even begin. She glanced over at the slumbering blonde next to her and, without really even thinking about it, rested her chin on Katsuki's shoulder. "We both woke up in the initial attack. Katsuki first—I think, actually, that if it wasn't for him I wouldn't of woken up at all. He saved me."

"Katsuki, huh?" Kirishima mused; his fists were still clenched in his lap, but a small smirk quirked his lips upward for a fleeting moment.

Ochako blushed, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"How did you wake up when literally no one else was able to?" Shinsou pressed, leaning forward in his seat in interest, "And how did the most stubborn asshole I know manage to get caught in their trap after escaping it the first time?"

Ochako sighed, "I'm assuming they planted some fake life in your heads too, right? Like at first?"

Tokoyami nodded, "I think it was so we'd more easily accept that parasite in our dreams."

She nodded in agreement, "Well—even with years of forged memories in our brains—the actual _dream_ was just too good to be true. We both realized within minutes that it wasn't real. I woke up to Katsuki slapping my face. We made a run for it, and ended up shacking up with Utsushimi Camie to remain hidden. We've been trying to find leads so that we can save everyone—we were following one when those bitch villains put him back under their spell." She winced after she realized what she'd just said—not like she's a prude, but Katsuki has definitely been rubbing off on her.

"And he fell for it the second time around?" Kirishima pondered.

Ochako shrugged, face heating up again as she remembered Bakugou's moans and groans of pleasure after they forced him to sleep. He had whispered her name so softly and—and _preciously_. And while she hated possibly being the reason for him giving into the dream parasite, it also made her heart skip knowing that Katsuki thought of her like that. That she's enticing enough to him to be his vice.

God, why hadn't he _told_ her? Ever since that moment, she's been _dying_ over the possibility of Bakugou thinking of her in _that_ way.

"Oh my god," Kirishima said, eyes wide as he took in her blushing face, "It was a sex dream, wasn't it?"

"W-what?" Ochako spluttered, "What makes you think that!? What? No!"

"It totally was," Shinsou said, grinning like he just won the lottery, "Holy fuck. Bakugou's weakness is wanting to get some."

"Stop, you guys!" Ochako whaled, "There's really no way to know for sure—!"

"Why are you blushing so much, huh?" Kirishima teased, "Did you hear things you wish you hadn't?" Shinsou barked out a laugh at that, and Kirishima looked like he was trying to reconcile this revelation, "God, I didn't even know that Bakugou _thinks_ about sex—I can't even imagine him moaning along to a wet dream!"

Shinsou's laughter only became more rowdy the more that came out of Eijirou's mouth.

"It's not funny!" She whined, removing her hand from Katsuki's so that she could cover her steaming face, "You guys are mean!"

»»-¤-««

Kawaguchi Akiko, in terms of personality, was _exactly_ like the redheaded villains Ochako had encountered in the rubble of Kosai. Her crass language and overall attitude, however, were much more playful instead of demeaning. Her red hair was pulled atop her head in a bun. And, because Ochako first saw her when the girl's back was to her, the first thing the brunette noticed about Akiko was that she had an undercut. The second thing she noticed was that she had a nose piercing. The third thing was the sandman's hourglass tattooed on her sternum.

"So _you're_ one of the brats that has been shaking things up for my bitch ass sisters?" She inquired loudly after Ochako introduced herself. Akiko accompanied her question with a hearty slap to her shoulder, which Ochako was positive was going to leave a bruise.

Ochako laughed lamely at the girl, and her response ended up sound much more like a question rather than a statement, "That's me?"

"Good fuckin' job!" She hollered, and Ochako got a good glance at the woman's tongue piercing, "I love seeing my sisters bitch at each other cause they ain't getting what they want!"

"This is Kawaguchi Akiko," Tsukauchi introduced calmly. Kawaguchi had been talking to the officer rather amiably when Ochako had walked up to them. "We wanted her to speak with you and Bakugou's parents about what should be done about Bakugou."

Ochako gulped. She's only ever heard stories about Katuski's parents, but has never had the opportunity to meet them like she had with Deku's mom. But if the stories were true, and Kacchan's mom was _really_ exactly like her explosive son…

"Right…" She said, like that made any sense. Which it didn't. Not even a little bit.

»»-¤-««

"Wake that bastard child up!" Bakugou Mitsuki demanded, hand slamming down on the table with vigor. The only person to flinch at the resounding sound was poor Naomasa, who obviously wasn't used to this kind of behavior.

Bakugou Masaru laid a calm hand on his wife's shoulder, "He's not a bastard child, honey."

"Whatever the fuck he is, he needs to be woken up!"

"Look lady," Kawaguchi slammed her own palm on the table, probably to assert her dominance in retaliation, "It's not that fuckin' simple—"

"I beg to differ!" Mitsuki barked, "You woke me the fuck up, you can wake my son the fuck up!"

"That was your _first_ time being infected by my sister's shitty quirk," Akiko argued, her sneer making her nose ring glint in the fluorescent lights, "The first time's always the easiest. This isn't your bastard son's first rodeo with Parasite—"

"Fuck you! Only _I_ get to call Katsuki my bastard son!"

"Fuck _you_ , actually. Me waking that twerp up is only going to hurt him!"

"You think my son can't handle it!?" Mitsuki roared, everything about the woman aggressively reminding Ochako of Katsuki. From the angry bared teeth, to her thrown up fist—Bakugou Katsuki was the spitting image of his mother. It would be kind of cute if Mitsuki didn't look one-hundred percent prepared to kill Kawaguchi.

Ochako flicked her eyes over to Bakugou's dad—his eyes were full of worry, and you could tell by the hand planted firmly on his wife's shoulder that he was loyal to his family.

Katsuki also resembled his dad, in a way.

"That's not the point, you psychopathic woman!" Akiko screeched right back, "The point is, I don't want to cause your boy unnecessary harm! I only elected to waking up _your_ sorry ass and the other kids at that damned warehouse because they needed to _escape!"_

"You think keeping him comatose is doing him any fucking favors!?"

The more these two women bickered back and forth, the more Ochako wondered why the hell she was even there—obviously, they each had a compelling argument and either course of action was likely to have negative effects on Bakugou. But she definitely didn't feel like she had claim enough over Katsuki to have a say in all of this. She wished she could just peek into his damn dream and ask the boy himself, because in the end it was Katsuki who should choose.

"What do you think, Ochako?" Tsukauchi interjected, really looking like he could use some sanity in this conversation.

Ochako blinked as everyone's attention was turned on her.

"To be honest," She started, eyes flicking between the four adults, "I'm not really sure why I'm a part of this decision—"

Mitsuki scoffed, "Katsuki doesn't just put up with someone for over a month, sweet cheeks." Good to know that Bakugou's fondness of appropriating names for people was at least inherited. "If he's been working on this case with you, he obviously trusts your judgment. That's why we asked for you to fucking be here. So don't be shy—we're big kids, we can take it."

"I wasn't _finished_ ," She snapped, forgetting that his wasn't _actually_ Bakugou that she was speaking with but not really caring either way. Mitsuki's mouth shut, and she raised her eyebrows at Ochako. Then, to her amazement, Mrs. Bakugou leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest with a look of respect. Ochako took that as her queue to continue, "I'm not really sure why _any_ of us are part of this decision—we're debating on whether or not Bakugou should be saved but not even considering whether or not he _wants_ to be saved. If we wake him up, if he's forced to rely on us—he'll probably feel humiliated by that." She let in a deep breath—because no matter how much she wanted to side with the Bakugou's and just wake him the fuck up so that she could see him scowl and laugh and live, she knew that these words were true. She glanced up, staring into Bakugou Mitsuki's eyes with determination painted within her own, "The only one that can make this decision is Katsuki himself."

Silence fell on the room like a poignant sprinkle of rain—the kind that made everything look more vibrant.

And then:

"Fine."

"What do you mean _fine?"_ Akiko inquired, "How the hell do you suppose we have the twerp make the choice when he's unconscious?"

Mitsuki growled, "I trust Uraraka to not suggest something like this if she hadn't already thought it through—we live in a fucking world of super powers. I'm sure we can figure something out."

Ochako blinked at that, wondering what exactly she'd done to earn this woman's trust.

"We don't know what interfering with his dream will do—"

"Ah, shaddup already," Mitsuki droned, leaning into her husband more now that she'd calmed down, "We're following the kid, so just get on board."

»»-¤-««

Bakugou's not sure how long he's been fighting this motherfucker, but like _hell_ he was going to give up now—even if his lungs turned to ash, even if his arms felt like they were going to erupt, even if he was choking on his own damned blood. He wouldn't quit until he wiped that smug look off of his own counterpart's face.

The fucking irony.

"You dead yet, pussy?" The other Bakugou spat at him, explosions trickling from his palms as if to inform Katsuki of another barrage of attacks. Katsuki was proud to say, that this fucker looked just as beat up and fucked as he did. But no matter what the other did, neither of them went down.

There had to be a way to kick this parasite outta his head—he just couldn't fucking figure it out.

"Not likely, asshole," Bakugou snapped back, ignoring his burning lungs to rush forward. He swung his right arm back, jumping forward to increase his momentum, and set off an explosion near the bastard's stomach. The fake-Bakugou dodged out of the way, aiming a kick at his head on the way. Katsuki narrowly managed to thrust his head backwards so that his face did not meet the destructive force of the villain's heel. But the bastard used the cover of Katsuki's recent explosion to attack again, tripping Katsuki with his leg. Katsuki felt a rough hand yank his hair and force his face into the ash and dirt hard enough that it was making him bleed.

"Fucking _give up_ ," The villain-Bakugou growled, "You let me in and you'll need to force me out. You'll never fucking beat me at this rate—you're growing weaker by the minute."

Katsuki grit his teeth, inhaling the dirt beneath him. He attempted to shift his weight to throw the fucker off of him, but the fake-Bakugou was settled securely onto his back so as to cut off his movement.

"Your only chance is to be saved like the _pathetic_ piece of shit you are," The bastard continued in a nasty snarl, "Heroes fucking _win_. Heroes do the _saving_. What kind of hero needs to _be_ saved?" He laughed mockingly, "You're no fucking hero; you don't mean _shit_ if you can't win. You don't mean _shit_ if you're always being rescued by your shitty classmates—"

"Shut UP!" Katsuki roared, turning his head to the side by sheer force of will so that he could glare up at his own ugly condescending face.

Fake-Bakugou sneered down at him, finding some sort of sick satisfaction at finally getting a reaction out of the blonde. He opened his mouth to no doubt degrade him, but Katsuki didn't let him say another fucking word.

"I said, shut _up!"_ Katsuki growled, "What the fuck is so wrong with being saved, huh? Better that than have to stare at your ugly mug any longer!"

There was a scoff above him, but it was only fuel to the fire that had started burning within him.

"You've said it all, fucker!" He raged on, bringing his weak fingers up to wrap around the villain's wrist. He dug his fingernails into the skin there until there was blood streaming down the fucker's hand. "I'm a fucking piece of shit! And what the fuck does that make you? Huh?" He didn't let the fucker respond, "At least I can _be_ saved, you soulless bastard!"

The fake-Bakugou picked up Katsuki's head by his hair and then proceeded to slam his face back into the ground forcefully. Katsuki groaned through the pain, and could feel that his nose had been broken. God, why did this feel so fucking _real?_

" _I_ don't need to be saved, genius," The villain's laugh was laced with mirth and it was right in Katsuki's ear, "I'm fucking _winning_."

"Hah," Katsuki gurgled out through the blood in his mouth, "M'not dead yet."

The weight on top of him disappeared, only for the bastard to kick him as hard as he could in the gut. Katsuki grappled for breath, clutching at his stomach as if that would ease the pain. But he forced himself to roll over so that he could glare up at his counterpart.

"Y'can't kill me," He spat, "And if I'm saved from this nightmare, _you_ lose."

Another kick, this time to his face.

Katsuki spit out a tooth, feeling more pissed off than he ever has in his entire life.

"That make you feel good, _bitch?"_ He yelled, staggering to his feet with all the strength left within him, "You feel at the top of the world just 'cause you can land a couple on me?"

"Haaaah?" Fake-Bakugou growled, "Isn't this what _you_ do to _everyone_ you deem beneath you? Isn't that what you're doing right now? Calling me a bitch to try and make me feel small?" He pushed Katsuki's shoulders, making the blonde stumble backwards, "Isn't that what you did to _Deku_ so you'd quit feeling _threatened_ by him?" Another push, "We're not so fucking different. You realized it, right? That you and I—we're one in the same? Everything you hate about _me_ is really everything you hate about _you_."

Bakugou threw a half-assed explosion at the villain's face.

" _You're_ not real, fuckface."

But his counterpart's words hit a little too close to home. He bit his lip, feeling tears of guilt and regret prick at the corner of his eyes.

"I'm the realest shit you've ever fuckin' seen—"

He was cut off by an actual pillar of light breaking through the dark clouds like some divine power that was here to pull Bakugou out of this nightmare. The both of them stared up at it dumbly.

"Bakugou."

It was a woman's voice—a voice that Katsuki recognized. One that resonated through his mind in much the same way his own thoughts bounce around his head.

"Bakugou," The voice from above the clouds repeated, "This is Mandalay—I'm here with pro-hero Angler."

Katsuki racked his brain for any information on Angler, and a vague memory of Deku muttering on about the hero surfaced within his mind. Angler had telepathic abilities, similar to Mandalay—he had the ability to look within someone's mind to read their emotions thanks to the single antennae on his head. Apparently, if the fucker focused hard enough he can even read individual thoughts from one specific person at a time.

"There's a woman here who can wake you up from this sleep," Mandalay continued, and Katsuki glanced over at his counterpart to find him growling at the beam of light like it personally offended him. "Being forced awake is mentally and even physically painful—so the decision on whether or not you want to be rescued from this coma lies within your own hands. Angler—"

"Fucking do it!" Katsuki yelled before the hero could even finish her explanation, or before the fake-Bakugou could incapacitate him or gag him or some other bullshit. And for the first time since the beginning of this shitty dream, his lungs didn't feel like they were on fire and he could finally _breathe_ , "Get me out of this nightmare!"

»»-¤-««

"The fuck?" Kawaguchi pondered, lowering the hand that had been outstretched towards Bakugou.

Ochako frantically peeked around the older woman, wondering what could have caused her to sound confused when Angler literally just told them that Katsuki actually wanted to be saved for once in his life. She wasn't exactly sure how Akiko's quirk worked, but her sisters seemed to be able to activate _their_ troublesome quirks through speech alone. So then why hadn't anything been done…?

Her train of thought stopped when she got a look at Bakugou.

His eyes were fluttering open, as he tried desperately to adjust to the sudden barrage of light. He squinted up at all of the people surrounding his bed, and his hand reached for his throat like he was surprised that it was working.

"The hell?" He croaked, voice rough from disuse. He glanced over to Mandalay as he tried to piece together just what the hell was going on. "Thought you said it'd be painful?" He finally asked the hero when his eyes had adjusted a bit more, "I'm just thirsty as fuck."

Mitsuki thrust a glass of water at her son while glaring at Kawaguchi.

"Don't look at me like that," Akiko snapped before the blonde woman could say anything, "I didn't use my quirk on him; he literally snapped out of it just as I was about to wake him up. He must've broken through Parasite."

Ochako quirked her head to the side, curious.

Katsuki gulped down the water gratefully. When he was finished, he shoved the glass into his mother's abdomen and shut his eyes again.

"Oh, no you don't!" Mitsuki barked at him, reaching down to pinch his cheek, "You've slept enough!"

Katsuki batted her hand away grumpily. "Doesn't feel like it," He muttered sleepily, rolling over onto his side. He exhaled dramatically, cracking open one scarlet eye, "Where's 'Chako? She safe?"

Mitsuki snorted, "Glad to know you've missed your own damned parents. Brat."

Bakugou rolled his eyes.

"I'm right here, Katsuki," Ochako chimed, stepping forward with a red face. She pointedly avoided eye contact with Mitsuki, who was smirking at the pair of them with a knowing look in her gaze. Katsuki stretched out a hand to her. Ochako accepted it like it was the most natural thing in the world, sliding her fingers into his. Katsuki smirked, maneuvering their hands just right for a thumb war. Ochako laughed, because only Bakugou Katsuki would instigate a thumb war rematch immediately after waking up from a traumatizing coma. She stretched her thumb, attempting for the millionth time to beat him at this silly game but getting her own thumb stuck underneath his in the process.

"Gotcha," He murmured softly, closing his eyes again and not bothering to let go of her hand after his victory—apparently accepting the warmth of her palm as his prize. She was a little struck dumb by the contented smile on his face. Someone had obviously let the butterflies in her stomach loose because _wow_ , Bakugou looked good when he smiled like that.

"I'll beat you one of these days, Kacchan," She whispered back, squeezing his hand.

He cracked open a velvet eye and regarded her for a moment before snorting.

"I look forward to it, angel," He mumbled.

"You owe me questions."

Bakugou hummed in agreement, "When I wake up."

"Fine," Ochako allowed, teasing. Her smile settled into something fond, "I missed you."

"Of course y'did."

"Jerk."

Bakugou chuckled, "Missed you too. Now lemme sleep."


	5. supernova

**_chapter five:_** **supernova**

They were moved to a secondary campus—one that had been built for these exact kinds of situations. It was apparently a well-guarded secret, because Ochako had no clue that U.A. even had a secondary location and they never would have been transferred there had Aizawa and All Might not shown up.

It wasn't as big as the primary campus, but there were enough rooms for all those from U.A. who'd escaped the villain's hideout plus Bakugou and Uraraka to have their own room (both her and Bakugou's parents had elected to just go back home with the added protection of the police force and all the pro-heroes Akiko had been waking up). She supposed that if an entire class or two were required to stay there, however, that they'd probably end up needing to share space. The few students from Shiketsu high that had also been saved were taken with one of their teachers to their own hideout so that gave them even more room to work with here.

Not that it mattered for her and Bakugou. He snuck into her room every night without fail just so that he could sleep on the floor next to her bed. Or in her bed on nights when sleeping was hard. She really wouldn't mind if he just slept in bed with her every night—but she supposed they were technically back under their teachers' supervision and could get in trouble for even being in the same room so late at night.

Ochako mused over this one evening while Bakugou was in her room, leaning against her legs while scribbling in a notebook much akin to Deku…who they'd both been worrying about ever since Ochako learned that those who'd been freed were the ones the villains didn't make much leeway with. Meaning that those who were still in those lunatics clutches _had_ been deemed malleable enough to continue their twisted torture. Ochako frowned at her own train of thought, shaking it away so as to protect herself from having an anxiety attack.

"You're not much of a troublemaker, huh?" She pondered aloud instead, fingers raking through his hair.

Bakugou snorted, not even glancing away from whatever he was working on, "What are you even talking about, angel?"

Ochako smiled—Bakugou had been calling her that a lot more recently.

"You've just got this _persona_ going on," She teased, "A ' _don't fuck with me'_ kind of persona, you know?"

Bakugou rolled his eyes, "It's not a _persona._ Don't fucking fuck with me."

"But then you do things like sleep on my floor instead of up in the bed with me," She continued as if Katsuki never said anything, "You're really a _gentleman_ , Katsuki."

Katsuki set his notebook down next to him, and then turned on his ass to look up at her with a raised eyebrow. " _Can_ I sleep up in the bed with you?" He inquired with interest, red eyes boring into hers, "Even if…"

Even if they don't have any problems with nightmares.

Ochako's eyes widened, not quite expecting this turn in the conversation. She'd just been _teasing_ after all.

"Do," She began, and her arms were resting in her lap but she was positive that if she tried to lift them that they'd be shaky and weak. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage and she wondered if she should tell Katsuki exactly how he makes her feel, "Do you _want_ to?"

"Is that your question for the day?"

Ochako bit her lip.

"I guess it is," She said nervously.

"Then yeah," He declared without reservation, "I do." And since it was a give and take sort of thing they had promised each other: "Do _you_ want me to sleep up in the bed with you?"

"Yeah," She murmured, flushed, "I do."

"Okay," He said, sounding weirdly pacifying, "Then I will."

"Okay."

He nodded awkwardly, but then turned back around to get back to his notes and suddenly it was like every other day they had spent together once again. And if he leaned more heavily on her legs and nuzzled into the hand raking through his hair, neither one of them was going to say anything about it.

»»-¤-««

For once Bakugou was in his own room by himself—Ochako told him that she wanted to spend some time with Jirou and some of the other girls that were taking refuge here, and Bakugou honestly needed some time just by himself anyways. So when there was a hesitant knock on his door, he stormed towards it with a few explosions ready for whoever thought they should disturb him. But he stopped short when he came face to face with the most pathetic look he's ever seen on stupid Kirishima Eijirou's features.

"What the fuck do you want, Shitty Hair?" Bakugou growled, even though he could tell just by looking at Kirishima that the fucker wanted to unload some pretty heavy shit. Why he'd choose Katsuki—arguably one of the worst people to confide in—to unload his shit _on_ , was beyond Bakugou. But a voice in his head that sounded irritatingly like Ochako told him that Kirishima relying on him and opening up about his feelings was a _good_ thing.

Kirishima bit his lip, scratching the back of his head.

Bakugou rolled his eyes, opening his door wider before Eijirou could even get a word out. "Get in here," He ordered, leaving the redhead at the door and tossing himself onto his bed. He picked his head off the blankets, glaring over at Kirishima, "Well? I don't have all day!"

Eijirou let out a shaky laugh, walking inside Bakugou's room and shutting the door behind him, "Thanks, Bakugou."

"Shut up," Bakugou scooted back on the bed so that he could lean against his pillows and level Kirishima with a glare, "Just spit it out."

But Eijirou stayed annoyingly quiet. Bakugou grit his teeth—if Kirishima wanted to fucking _talk_ then he'd have to fucking _talk_. Katsuki wasn't good at puzzling everything together like Ochako and Deku were. He didn't know what were the right questions to ask to get his stupid friend to open up.

Thankfully, the redhead must have picked up on Bakugou's growing discomfort, because he sat down on the desk and opened his mouth.

"Sorry," He started, "I've just been keeping a lot in, and I really just need to talk it out with someone. And I trust you, so."

Bakugou couldn't imagine _why_ this idiot would trust him, but whatever.

"There's a lot that's fucked up with what those villains did to us," Kirishima said, gaze far away and haunted, "But the most fucked up thing to me is that they're still out there doing all that shit to our _friends_." He shut his eyes, like painful memories were assaulting him and the darkness somehow alleviated that pain, "I'm not strong like you…"

Bakugou growled at that, because they'd been through this before already—

"Really, Bakugou," Kirishima insisted, glaring up at his friend, "I'm not. They had me and Midoriya sharing a room, you know. Kept putting us to sleep with that parasite and messing with our memories—and whatever they were doing was _working_. On the both of us. When we'd wake up it was like the world was just getting darker and darker, and there were just so many reasons to hate _everything_."

Bakugou gulped—ever since Kawaguchi shed the light on what her sister's plans were exactly, he'd been having nightmares over it. He could only imagine what kind of things they'd use to mess up his classmates' minds enough to create fucking _villains_. Deku's progress especially scared him. A lot of the shitty parts of the nerd's life were Bakugou's own fault, and he couldn't help but speculate that the villain's took advantage of that. But the scariest question he's still agonizing over was, had the villains successfully captured him like everyone else, would it have been easy for them to manipulate him into becoming a villain?

Probably—it wasn't so much a matter of strength but a matter of perception after all.

Kirishima was looking into his hands. "It scared me," He admitted quietly, "My fear was what saved me—not like Shinsou who wouldn't budge out of sheer force of will, or Tokoyami and Jirou who's quirks helped wake them up. I had so much anxiety within me that my own brain was rejecting the bait whenever I went under." He sucked in a sharp breath as he spoke and Bakugou could see the tears that were building up at the corner of his eyes, "They moved me when I stopped responding, afraid that I would hinder the process with Midoriya. They put me down and brought me out of it so many times after that—everyday it seemed like, maybe even multiple times a day, but I can't really be sure—and every time it just got more and more painful, I—"

"Eijirou."

Kirishima jumped, as if he had forgotten that Katsuki was there.

Katsuki huffed dotingly, not entirely sure when his circle of care and fondness expanded to include the redhead—or anyone but himself, if he was being honest with himself. But Kirishima was probably one of the first people that Bakugou had ever labeled as his friend since the beginning of high school. He might have been his first true friend since _Deku_.

"It's," Bakugou started awkwardly, wetting his lips and searching for the right words, "It's okay. To be scared, I mean. Uh," He racked his brain, trying to think of what Kirishima would say to him if their roles were reversed, "Even men have fears?" He growled at that because it definitely sounded stupid coming from his mouth—but it _did_ make Eijirou's lips twitch upwards a smidge. "Ugh," He said, "Just fuckin'. Pick yourself up, dammit. It's a scary situation to find yourself in, and there's nothing _weak_ about not wanting to be forced to become someone you're not. You can't—you can't be strong without also being afraid. Alright?"

Dammit, why did _he_ sound so unsure?

Kirishima hummed, wiping away the tears in his eyes.

"Right, Bakugou," He said, sounding a little brighter, "Thanks! I feel much better after getting all of that off my chest! You're a really good listener!"

"Of course I am!" Katsuki barked, rolling his eyes, "Just stop thinking you're weak, alright? Or I'll punch your insecurities in the face!"

Eijirou laughed.

"Ochako's been rubbing off on you, huh?" Kirishima teased, "You're being all _nice._ "

Bakugou's calm demeanor instantly exploded into disgruntlement.

"Fuck off, Shitty Hair!" He barked, face burning.

Kirishima pouted, "Aww, come on! We're best bros—you're supposed to tell me about stuff like this!"

Katsuki blinked. It's not the first time Eijirou has used the term _best bros_ when it concerned the two of them, but it was the first time that Katsuki really registered what it probably meant to the redhead. In his stupid shitty fake world (the first time around) the only person that had really stayed connected with him was Deku, probably because Katsuki himself had a hard time acknowledging his other friendships that had been built during their time at U.A. Not because he didn't like Kirishima, or any of the other idiots (although, yeah, at first all of his classmates got on his fucking nerves) but because he subconsciously didn't understand why they wanted to be his friend.

If there was one thing he learned from his time spent with Ochako, it was that _friends_ generally did things like _communicate_ and _support_ one another.

He sighed, and it came out kind of scratchy because he was honestly _disgusted_ with how much he was _caring_.

"Stuff like _what_ , exactly?"

"Like how you have a gigantic crush on Uraraka," Kirishima chirped.

Bakugou sputtered, "Th-that's exactly the kind of conversation I avidly try to avoid!"

"You're not denying it, though," Kirishima observed.

Katsuki grit his teeth. He didn't deny it because that would be _lying_ and he _hated_ lying. And fuck Kirishima for knowing that and taking advantage!

"Yeah, well. Fuck you."

Eijirou beamed, "This is the most precious shit I've _ever_ seen. Are you going to tell her!?"

"What? No!"

"Why not?" Eijirou pouted in confusion, "She obviously likes you too."

Katsuki squinted his eyes at his friend, "How can you tell?"

"How," Kirishima looked exasperated, which was ridiculous because Bakugou was the only one allowed to be exasperated in this conversation, "How can I _tell?_ You're both _all over_ each other _all of the time_."

Katsuki's eyes narrowed even further, "So?"

" _So!?"_

Katsuki was _not_ good with his words, and there was no way in hell he was about to explain to Hair for Brains that he and Ochako had their own demons they had been fighting through and the best anchor for the both of them had been the other's presence. And _because_ he was shit with words, that meant that he expressed that to the brunette through physical touch because that's arguably the best way to show someone just how present they are. And now the both of them relied on it so much that they just couldn't _stop_.

Didn't mean she reciprocated his feelings.

"We've been by ourselves for a while, ya know," He said instead, hoping that would be enough of an explanation for Kirishima.

The redhead only rolled his eyes, "Trust me. She likes you."

Katsuki's traitorous brain thought back to the other night where Ochako had told him that it was okay for him to sleep with her in her bed. It's not like they fucking _cuddled_ all night. They reserved all of the cuddly shit for when they had nightmares. But for the most part, they slept with their backs to each other so as to have that reassuring physical contact while simultaneously respecting personal space. Plus it was the most comfortable that way. And girls did shit like that with their friends all the time, didn't they? Fuck, that was only with their friends that were also girls though, wasn't it?

 _Fuck_. Had he overstepped his bounds with her?

But she had also wanted for him to sleep next to her?

Shit, did this mean that Hair for Brains was on to something?

"You look kinda like you need to shit," Kirishima laughed, "Quit thinking so hard about it and just tell her! What's the worst thing that could happen?"

Well, she could still be into Deku. Which—Katsuki didn't really want to open that particular can of worms.

"Bakugou," Kirishima whined, and then a mischievous shark-toothed smile split across his face, "Just give it a _shot._ Or are you saying that you can't do it?"

Katsuki bristled, "I can do it, Hair for Brains!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it."

"Fine! Fuck you!"

Kirishima only laughed.

»»-¤-««

When Katsuki slipped into her room in the evening he was acting _weird_. Where he'd usually just take initiative and slip into the bed beside her, he was loitering at the edge of the bed like he needed permission to join her. Once she practically dragged him down to lie next to her, he made sure to keep his distance. When she forcefully cuddled into him and forced one of her legs between his, he didn't relax into it like he always did. He was tense, straining his neck so that his face didn't come close to hers.

She harrumphed.

"What's the matter with you?" She growled, pinching his side.

" _Ugh_ ," He garbled to himself, knocking her hand away so as to avoid being tickled further, "This is so _stupid."_

Ochako quirked an eyebrow at him, even though Katsuki couldn't see since it was dark and he was doing everything in his power to avoid eye contact with her. Obviously something was on his mind, and he was fighting with himself to just let the words spill. "Out with it," She emphasized with another pinch to his side.

He jumped—he was so dang ticklish, and Ochako loved knowing that about him.

He sighed.

"I gotta tell you something, angel," He murmured.

"No shit."

He bristled, smashing his forehead against hers to remind her that he was supposed to be threatening. Ochako smiled—at least this was better than him not touching her. He growled right in her face, but it only made her giggle.

She waited patiently for him to cool off, glad to note that he had finally relaxed in her hold.

"Look," He said into her hair, "I'm not good at this shit. I'm kind of an asshole, and I'm shit at communicating. But," He growled again, like he was struggling to find the right words. "Oh, fuck it." He sucked in a deep breath and then: "I like you, Ochako."

Ochako's breathing stopped for a second.

"A _lot_. But I didn't want to make things _weird_ if you…"

He trailed off, and Ochako could _feel_ the heat radiating from his face.

She could feel a hot blush creeping up the back of her own neck. She already _knew_ that Bakugou was attracted to her, at least on a physical level thanks to overhearing him in the middle of his dream. But she hadn't been totally sure if it went any deeper than that. For him to be so open about it, like he was proud that she was the one to capture his affection, well—there was a surge of _excitement_ coursing through her veins as a result. It had her feeling like she was floating without the use of her quirk, soaring on euphoria.

She must have stayed quiet for too long, because he began to withdraw.

"Ah, fuck," He said, "Sorry—I'm—"

Ochako reeled him back, stuffing her face underneath his chin and nuzzling into the skin there. She could feel his heart beating wildly against his chest—if you had told her a month ago that she would be in this position, making Bakugou Katsuki _nervous_ of all things, she would have laughed in your face. But here they were, evicting all _sorts_ of emotions out of the other.

"I like you too, Katsuki," She whispered against his neck, nosing her way up until their faces were level, "A lot."

His breathing was hitting her lips, hot and heavy. His warmth had always been a comfort to her, but the places where they were pressed together were suddenly all she was aware of, all that she could feel.

She felt like she was on fire, and she could see it burning in his gaze as well. The room was dark, but there was just enough moonlight streaming in through the window for her to see his gaze shift into something powerful and intense and all for _her_. Her words took a moment to sink in, but then one of his hands was reaching out to wrap around her waist to pull her to him more fully.

They met somewhere in the middle, lips pressing against each other's tentatively. And then that pressure became much more firm as they began to move, exploring each other in ways they never had before.

His lips were surprisingly soft and accommodating—he was following her lead, not even moving his hands from her waist until she trailed her own up his chest and to his neck first. When he did move, he brought one hand up to cradle her head gently while the other squeezed playfully at her side. He was handling her with so much care and it was making her _crazy._

She let her tongue glide out from between her lips, seeking entrance into his mouth. He obliged, tangling their tongues together but still allowing her to dominate the kiss.

They continued their push and pull until Ochako drew away, pulling on his bottom lip with her teeth and then letting go of it teasingly.

She opened her eyes to see half-lidded red ones staring back at her.

Ochako giggled, stealing a peck from his lips and then nuzzling back into his neck. He hummed, sliding his hands back down to her waist where they settled.

The question she'd been dying to ask him for a while now bubbled to the front of her mind.

"Hey," She whispered, pausing to kiss his neck lightly—like the almost there touch of a quiet breeze, "Why did you stop to wake me up back then?" She nosed along the muscles of his neck, nipping his skin as she pleased and smiling when she felt him shiver in response, "You could have run. But you stopped to save me."

"I didn't wanna be alone," He admitted after a moment of contemplation, pressing a kiss onto her forehead, "It could have been anyone—but when I saw you struggling I somehow knew that you were feeling what I had felt: that sinking realization that none of it was real. I had enough respect for you, that making the decision to wake you up was easy. But I'm glad that you were there." He squeezed his arms around her lightly, digging his nose into her hair, "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been—no one else had been waking up no matter what I did, and I couldn't go back to being alone. That fucking sucked."

Ochako nodded, having expected an answer like that considering everything she knew about his dream world. It's always kind of astounded her how much stock Bakugou has put in her, even from the very beginning at their first year's sports festival. To know that waking her up hadn't even been a hard decision for him to make because he held _respect_ for her made gratitude erupt inside of her chest.

The reason she'd been dying to ask hadn't been for his answer.

"You saved me, you know," She spoke quietly, "I don't think I would have woken up if you hadn't been there—god, you're so _strong_ , Katsuki. _Thank you_."

He didn't say anything, but the way that he melted around her spoke volumes.

"Sorry," She mumbled into his shirt, "I guess that's not really a question I can answer back, huh? Hmm…ask me whatever you'd like?"

Bakugou hummed, and his throat vibrated against Ochako's face.

"Who taught you to kiss like that?"

Ochako blushed.

"Uh," She said eloquently, a little caught off guard that they went from deep talk to _this_ —also she'd never really talked about _this_ with anyone before. "Um, well," She gulped, "Tsuyu did." She didn't need to be able to see him to know that his eyebrows were shooting up to his hairline.

"Well," He said, clearing his throat, "I'll have to thank her next time I see her."

»»-¤-««

"So what's the scoop, teach?" Shinsou inquired of Aizawa at breakfast, sipping at his coffee with a bored expression, "You gonna let us out now that we've had time to recuperate? Gonna let us in on this case? Nice to see you, by the way. Thanks for abandoning us."

"Man, shut the fuck up, sleepy," Bakugou whined from the stove where he was flipping pancakes for everyone.

"It's alright, Bakugou," Aizawa reassured him, leveling Shinsou with a deadpan expression, "Shinsou's just being a smartass."

Katsuki rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Camie," Ochako smiled at the hero, wiping her hands on her apron and holding out her arms for a hug. She was glad to see the woman—they haven't been able to see each other since the incident at Kosai since Tsukauchi had sent her off to look into the circus that Togami Maho had once been a part of.

"Babe!" She greeted excitedly, greedily running into Ochako's arms and smacking a wet kiss on her cheek.

"Hands off," Bakugou growled at Camie, yanking the other blonde off Ochako when he noticed her hand creeping towards his girlfriend's ass.

Camie grinned, " _You_ were the one that told me to smooch her myself."

"Too fucking bad," Bakugou intoned, getting back to his pancakes, "I'm officially on smooching-duty. So back off."

"No way?" Kirishima exclaimed from where he was pulling out plates and bowls and the likes for breakfast, "You did it, bro? That's awesome!"

"Eugh," Jirou coughed on some of her orange juice, sending Ochako a scandalized expression, "How can you stand smooching _that?"_

Ochako was still a little dizzy from hearing Bakugou—her _boyfriend_ —say something as cute as 'smooching-duty', but she somehow still managed to puzzle together that Jirou was probably asking how she could stand kissing _boys_ in general rather than Katsuki specifically. Ochako sent her a grin and a wink, and placed a steady palm on Bakugou's chest when he bristled at Jirou's disgusted tone.

"Honestly, Uraraka," Shinsou sneered, "How _can_ you smooch that?"

"You wanna fuckin' go, you purple haired fucks!?" An explosion erupted from Katsuki's hand not holding onto the frying pan.

"No quirks in the kitchen," Aizawa reprimanded.

"Oh," Ochako teased, throwing an arm around Katsuki's waist and smacking a wet kiss to his clenched jaw, "It's not so bad, guys."

Camie and Kirishima whooped at that. Jirou and Shinsou gagged. Tokoyami didn't react at all.

"You kids are funny as hell," Kawaguchi observed from her place next to Aizawa

"As interesting as this conversation is," Aizawa interrupted, "We did actually come here to debrief everyone who'd like to get involved in this case—we can get started over pancakes." He sighed, glancing around the room "Where's All Might? How can that man manage to be late to everything? _"_

»»-¤-««

Katsuki invaded her space during breakfast, their elbows knocking together often due to how close he was sitting next to her. It made her smile, how affectionate he actually was even in front of their peers.

She ignored Shinsou's disgusted facial expressions he kept sending their way in favor of eating her pancakes and listening to the information Aizawa and Camie were laying down for them.

"Togami Maho," Aizawa started, pouring syrup all over his pancakes, "The key to this entire plot—is _likely_ being held captive herself. From the testimonials of those who had worked with her in her traveling circus, it sounds as if she was taken against her will. However," He stopped for a moment to bring a piece of pancake up to his lips, "We can't be certain that she's not actually on the villain's side. Kawaguchi herself has never met the woman, isn't even sure where they're keeping her. But whether she's a harmless civilian or not, the fact remains: if we disconnect her from the villains, then their power is lost."

"Do we know if there are any other quirk holders besides your sisters that we'll need to deal with?" Ochako inquired of Kawaguchi, using her fork to cut up her pancakes.

Akiko nodded.

"The memory manipulator is one we were already aware of," Aizawa said, "But she did tell us something about him that could be helpful."

Kawaguchi shrugged, "You brats know that they'd brainwashed me too, right? But check me out. Sitting here eating pancakes with the goodies."

"His quirk doesn't have to be permanent," Camie translated, "It's totally reversible. Which is good, because apparently our main concerns when it comes to quirks in this crazy rescue mission are the quirks of the students they've already found success in."

Silence fell on the breakfast table, along with a heavy feeling in all of their guts. Ochako glanced over at All Might, who looked like he was about to snap his eating utensils in half.

"Most of their brainwashing was done through memory manipulation," Aizawa continued to explain, his own hands curling into fists, "The dream parasite was only implemented to keep our students unconscious so that they couldn't fight back."

"Do," All Might began, eyes stormy, "Do we know _who_ they've found success in?"

Aizawa clenched his teeth—Kirishima also looked pretty uneasy, as if he already had an idea. "Todoroki," Shouta grit out, eyes edging on murderous, "Monoma, Kaminari…Midoriya"

"Fuck," Ochako heard Bakugou whisper.

Aizawa and Camie continued to debrief them, but Ochako could tell that Katsuki wasn't completely there. She brushed her hand against his under the table, and he clung onto it as the rest of the mission details were explained to them.

»»-¤-««

That night, Ochako held Katsuki until he cried himself to sleep. He would shudder with broken, wet sobs every now and again, but kept quiet for the most part. His face was buried in her chest, tears spilling onto her shirt until they finally petered out and his breathing became slow and even.

That's when she let her own tears escape. Crying in earnest until sleep yielded to her as well.

»»-¤-««

The following couple of days held a heavy atmosphere that none of them seemed capable of shaking. Aizawa held impromptu classes with them, but for the most part they just ran simulations of their upcoming extraction task. The goal in each assessment was for them to rescue a dummy while going unnoticed by not only their other classmates, but Aizawa, All Might, and Camie as well.

Katsuki was struggling with it—his emotions were getting in the way. Even though it wasn't even the real deal, he was acting too impulsively which was so unlike him. Katsuki was the opposite of impulse when it comes to fighting. He's usually the one taking _everything_ into consideration. But his normally perfect control was slipping at the seams—when Aizawa threatened to kick him out of the mission if he couldn't get himself together, it only made Bakugou more reckless.

Ochako pondered over what she could do to help him release some of his emotions in other ways, so as to help him have a clear head during training. But the thing was…training usually _was_ his stress relief.

She sighed, clicking the communicator in her ear as she heard the telltale sound of explosions in the distance. They were using one of the few training grounds this makeshift campus had available, and the dummy victim was right at the center of it. They were all placed strategically around it, and the goal was simply not to get _caught_.

"He's coming to you, Ochako," Tokoyami's voice sounded in her ear.

"Of course he is," She deadpanned, stepping out from her hiding spot as Bakugou's explosions got closer. Almost lazily, she activated her quirk on herself and then soared through the air at the same time Katsuki jumped forward. She caught him by surprise, colliding midair and releasing her quirk. She maneuvered him below her as gravity returned to her, grabbing each of his wrists and letting all of her weight settle onto him as they hit the ground. She straddled his hips, pinning his wrists to the earth on either side of his head.

"Were you even _trying_ that time, Katsuki?" She inquired, squeezing his wrists and glaring down at him.

"Get…off," He bit out harshly, although the look on his face didn't really match his tone of voice.

She blinked down at him in confusion, shifting slightly to do as he asked and brushing up against something hard near his hips. Her eyes widened as she put two and two together, and she rolled off Bakugou with a _meep_ —she was more surprised by it than anything else, but the thought that she'd turned him on during _training_ that their _teachers_ were overseeing made her feel a little sheepish. He scrambled to a sitting position, hunching himself over his legs so as to hide his erection and avoid any eye contact. Her face was on fire as she computed through this new development.

"Uraraka," Aizawa's voice filled her ear, "Did you stop the extraction?"

"Uh," She started articulately, glancing over at Katsuki. His face was completely hidden by his arms, but she could see that his ears were bright red, "Yeah."

Aizawa sighed.

"Alright," He muttered, irritated, "Hand your communicator over to him—it's your turn now. Hopefully he'll get his act together after watching you."

»»-¤-««

"Quit fuckin' _staring_ at me, pink cheeks," Bakugou bit out later, focusing on his notebook in a way that would have looked determined if it weren't for the blush dusting across his cheekbones. He was on the ground, leaning up against her bed, and she was lying across the mattress on her side, eyes locked onto the side of his head.

She couldn't help _but_ stare at him.

Ochako has always been aware that Katsuki was handsome—but in the same way that she knows that she's breathing. It was just so obvious that it was almost subconscious and had always meant nothing to her because how could someone like him ever be interested in someone like her anyways? And even him having some sort of wet dream about her was still this distant thing that didn't actually _involve_ her.

But today something that she had done had turned him on.

He had been aroused _because of her_.

And somehow his allure that had always kind of drawn her in subconsciously was now smacking her in the face. The soft way the fluorescent lights played on his ash blonde hair, how the shadows fell on his face and accentuated his strong jaw line, the intense magnetic pull of his ruby gaze—all of it was making Ochako wonder what he'd look like falling apart at her touch.

"I mean it, 'Chako," He grumbled, flicking his eyes over to glare at her, "I'm sorry about today, alright? Just forget it happened."

Ochako blinked, because—was Bakugou _embarrassed?_ Did he not realize that he affected her just as much as she affected him?

She bit her lip, daring to reach out and run her fingers through the hairs at the base of his neck. Her hand trailed down further, kneading at the muscles of his neck and making an appreciative sound at how sturdy they were.

"What if I don't _want_ to forget about it?" She murmured, wrapping her hand around his neck almost possessively.

He froze, dropping his notes onto the floor in front of him, before turning on his ass and staring right back at her. His red eyes were scorching, as if trying to read her mind just to make sure she was offering what he thought she was offering. Something in her face must have convinced him, because in the next moment he was slowly climbing onto the bed. She rolled over onto her back, staring up at him with lidded eyes.

He placed his hands on her ankles, gently rubbing his thumbs on the protruding bone on the outside of each leg before thoughtfully sliding his palms up her calves. He stopped at her knees, softly prying her legs apart with a question in his eyes. She bit her lip, opening her legs even further in answer.

Katsuki wet his lips, staring down at her parted legs with hungry eyes.

He crawled forward until his elbows were on either side of her head, the muscles in his arms straining to keep his weight from crushing her. He kept their eyes locked together as he slowly dropped the weight of his lower body onto her hips.

Ochako sighed—his body was always so warm and she _loved it._ Without any more reservation, she wrapped her arms around his back to push him closer. The muscles under her hands shifted as he went down, and she experimentally scraped her fingernails over the clothed skin. He shuddered, lips seeking hers.

She obliged eagerly, meeting him with a wet kiss on the edge of desperate. He allowed her to take what she wanted, following her lead as she deepened the kiss and moved down to her neck when she pulled away to gasp for air. He pulled the fabric of her shirt to the side so that he could suck on the skin where her neck and shoulder met, pulling away a moment later to study the mark that was rising to the surface as a result.

"Katsuki," She murmured, smiling when he laid a peck on the bruise he'd left on her, "You dreamt of me, right? That second time?"

His eyes widened, and then his lips quirked upwards into something predatory.

"So you heard me?" He inquired, his nose skimming along her neck and his hot breath fanning against her clavicle.

"Maybe," She teased, her nails scraping on his scalp. She tugged on his hair a little to get him to move back, wanting to meet his eyes. "Can," She breathed, as brown met red, "Can you show me what it was like?"

He raised an eyebrow, and then asked rather seriously, "Is that your question for the day?"

Ochako bit her lip in attempt to hide her smile—she knew that Katsuki knew that she'd clearly already asked a question not even moments ago—but nodded nonetheless.

"Hmm," He hummed, easing back slightly with dark eyes, "Will you give me everything you've got if I show you?"

Ochako studied his expression—knowing him, he wouldn't ask a question like that if he hadn't believed that _she_ was the one with reservations. It was probably why he'd been so embarrassed by what happened during training. He wasn't sure if she was ready for _this_ considering they had only confessed to each other days ago and therefore didn't want to pressure her. But this couldn't just be about whether or not she was willing to have sex with him—they've pretty much already established that she's more than okay with it.

There was something else under the surface, something he wanted from her. And she trusted him enough to not ask anything of her she wouldn't want to or couldn't give.

So she nodded.

She watched something in him snap, watched the moment she unhinged him, and a second later he rolled them over so that she was the one on top, staring down into his dilated eyes. She was straddling him, and this time when she felt his hardness against her she didn't run from it. Instead she sat up, her ass pressing into his erection firmly.

"It was more like this," Katsuki explained, voice low and thick with desire. He slid his hands up her thighs reverently until his fingertips brushed against the fabric of her pajama shorts, his eyes following the path his fingers were making. "You had me where you wanted," He whispered, and the implications of this position had lust pooling deep in her stomach, "And I liked being there."

His hands crept upwards, stroking back and forth over her sides, skimming the underside of her breasts. Something came over her, it was something about his taunting expression as he explored her, the challenge in his eyes, and without thinking twice she grabbed those hands and forced them down, bringing them over his head as she transferred both of them into one hand. It wasn't a particularly firm grip, but his interest in this dynamic was emphasized by the way his dick twitched beneath her and how he didn't resist. Ochako was breathless at the reality of him letting her pin him like this. She was well aware that he could reverse their positions easily if he desired—the fact that he was _allowing_ this was making her dizzy.

She kicked one leg over Katsuki's, urging for him to open his legs so that she could settle between them. He spread his legs obediently, and Ochako's other leg followed the first until his knees were bracketing either side of her.

"Is this okay?" She asked, voice low. He nodded eagerly, so she ground her hips into his experimentally, eyes locked onto his face to watch the pleasure she was providing him paint across his features. He moaned, the noise turning her on more than anything she's ever witnessed. She could feel wetness dripping down her walls, could feel it soaking her shorts. They had only barely gotten started and Bakugou was driving her _crazy_.

"I'm gonna make you feel good, Katsuki. Gonna take care of you," She whispered, eyes locked onto his face, "Is that what you wanted?"

He groaned at that, perhaps even louder than when she had ground down onto his erection, biting his lip and looking completely wrecked at the prospect of her taking control. He nodded, eyes eclipsed with lust.

"I need to hear you say it," Ochako persisted, bringing her hand up to cup his deceptively soft cheeks.

"Yes," Katsuki whispered, hips wiggling to find more friction but coming up short with how she had him pinned, "I want it."

Ochako's breath hitched and she leaned down to capture his pliant lips. Her free hand trailed down his neck, down his clothed abdomen until it met the waistband of his pants. She pulled away from his lips with a wet smacking sound so that she could see what she was doing as she unbuckled his belt, popped open the button of his pants, and snuck her hand down to palm him through his boxers.

"Fuuuuck," He groaned, arms twitching in her grip and his back arching off the bed at her ministrations.

"Don't move, okay?" She commanded, letting go of his hands. He kept them above his head subserviently. The expression on his face as he looked up at her—that submissive, worshipful expression—took her breath away. She almost sidetracked herself from her mission of pulling his pants and underwear down and off with the unbearable temptation of surging forward again to kiss him. She stopped herself, her hand pushing down on his chest so that she couldn't move any further and causing her to lean over him—hair hanging down around her and casting interesting shadows on Katsuki's face.

He smiled at that, eyes shining with amusement like he knew how much he was enticing her. He was mocking her over it.

She flicked his cheek playfully, and removed her other hand from his pants.

"Behave," She admonished.

He glanced up at his hands that were still above his head and then back up at her, raising an eyebrow, "I am." That teasing smile was still on his lips though, taunting her.

"You're being a smartass," She disagreed, finding herself unable to resist and leaning in for a kiss anyways. "You're distracting," She added, pulling away. Her eyes wandered south, transfixed by the line of skin that had been exposed from where his shirt had ridden up.

"My bad," He baited, his grin all teeth, "There's not a lot I can do about that one though."

"Hmm," She marveled, pausing once again from her task of getting his pants off to ruck up his shirt all the way to his armpits. She glanced up at him, her mouth just an inch from one of his nipples, "I thought I told you to behave." She wrapped her lips around the bud, reveling in the way it made his breath hitch.

"You gonna—hah—punish me, cheeks?" He cajoled.

"No," Ochako asserted, lapping at his nipple with her tongue before biting down on it playfully and pulling back briefly to speak, "I'm going to give you exactly what you want, Katsuki—but only when you're begging for it. Only when you're so desperate for it that you give up all that perfect control to me." She twisted his other nipple between her thumb and forefinger, tongue flicking out to abuse the one still garnering attention from her mouth and never breaking eye contact with him. She pulled back, blowing on the bud that was wet with her saliva. "Does that sound good?"

" _Fuck_ ," He breathed, hands twitching and eyes wide, "Yeah it does."

"Mmm, yeah," Ochako parroted, sliding down his body and tugging on his pants lightly, "I bet it'll feel good to finally give up all that control, huh? But tell me if I do anything you don't want."

Katsuki snorted, "I trust you, 'Chako."

She shook her head, frowning—even though that trust meant the world to her, "I can't read your mind, Katsuki. Tell me you'll let me know if something's not right, or I'm stopping this now."

Something like gratitude gleamed across his eyes.

"Okay," He groused, "I'll tell you if something's off."

She nodded and tapped his thigh until he picked up his hips, and then she slowly stripped him of his pants and underwear. His cock sprang up, hard and leaking. Ochako eyed it and licked her lips, but she forced herself to focus on his pants until they were at his ankles and he was kicking them off.

She settled in between Katsuki's legs, reaching out to trace his hipbones and very pointedly avoiding his erection. She turned her head to the side to place kisses and nips on the inside of his thighs, and continued like this until he was squirming. She pulled away from a hickey she'd sucked onto his sharp muscles, feeling smug.

"Want something?" She grinned, tongue slipping from between her teeth and flicking just short of his cock.

"Come on, 'Chako," He pleaded, sounding desperate.

"You're gonna have to ask nicely."

"Please," He groaned, hips bucking up into nothing, "Want your mouth."

She rolled her eyes. It wasn't a question and it was still kind of demanding, but it was close. She'd have him giving up that defiance soon anyways, so she complied and moved forward to lick a long stripe up the underside of his length—reveling in the sound that escaped from his mouth.

She kissed the side of his dick affectionately, earning a snort from Katsuki. She ignored him and opened her mouth to wrap her lips around the head with her hands pressed firmly into his hips. She gave an experimental suck, only having the still-vivid memories of her counterfeit life with Deku to go off of. His hands twitched in their place above his head, like he wanted to thread his fingers through her hair and shove her face down onto his cock.

But she was the one in control here. And from the way his hands stayed exactly where she had put them: he knew it.

She slid his dick into her mouth slowly, teasingly, addicted to the way he was fighting to keep his hips from moving, hooked on how vocal he was under her touch. And she kept going until it was sitting on the back of her tongue, hot against the edge of her throat. What she couldn't fit into her mouth, she wrapped her hand around.

Ochako bobbed her head once, letting the tip of his dick brush up against the top of her throat and swirling her tongue around the length as best as she could. She started slowly, her hand matching the pace of her mouth as she stroked him firmly. He whimpered and squirmed above her, eyes black with desire.

She kept up this slow rhythm, torturing him with her mouth until his noises became progressively more and more desperate and pleasured.

"C-close," Katsuki gasped out eventually, his hips twitching involuntarily.

Ochako pulled off his dick with the most lewd, wet sound she's ever heard, licking her lips. He groaned, the sound coming out more as a borderline sob as the attention to his cock was taken away abruptly.

She traced her hands over the long line of muscles that curved prettily from the outside of his hips to the inside of his knees on either leg, waiting patiently for his erratic breathing to even out. Her mouth returned to his thighs, biting and sucking on his skin teasingly. It wasn't until he started whining and twitching that she brought her face back to his dick.

She glanced up at him when she was an inch away from the head and smiled.

"You're really pretty like this, Katsuki," She told him honestly.

His cock twitched from the praise, and Ochako tried to disguise her surprise—because she really shouldn't be caught off guard that Bakugou Katsuki of all people is into praise. This should definitely be expected from the explosive boy who probably gets off on being the very best at everything he sets his mind to.

"God, you're perfect," She continued, unable to resist the practical application of this new information and unwilling to hold these truths about the man inside anyways. He _was_ perfect—trusting her like this, showing her this side of him. It was addicting. She'd probably never get over this.

His answering moan was broken and drawn out, the muscles of his arms straining as he fought to keep his hands above his head. Ochako watched with fascination, taking note that his cock was shamelessly leaking pre-cum all over the sheets. She snuck forward to lap it away.

This time when she wrapped her mouth around his cock, his blissed-out whimpers didn't take long for her to draw out. He was close to the edge after only a few moments of his cock being sucked into her wet heat. When she pulled away this time, just as he had reached the edge and was ready to spill over, he _did_ sob.

"Ochako," He cried, actual tears in his eyes, "Please, it hurts."

Ochako hummed, coyly considering his request. Something in his eyes was still holding on, still clutching onto his control, even if only a little—she couldn't end this until he let that go. She wrapped her hands around his dick, stroking him slowly and not even minding that his hips were fucking up into her grip.

"That's it, Katsuki," She murmured, tightening her grip on his length slightly, "You're doing so well."

Katsuki moaned with every stroke, oversensitive. "Oh, god," He bit his lip, throwing his head back into the mattress. Ochako took this as her queue to squeeze the base of his cock to stop the orgasm that was on the horizon.

"Ochako," Katsuki sobbed, tears streaming freely down his cheeks as his hips continued to seek out friction. His entire body was tense from being brought to the edge so many times only for her to pull back and make him wait. When she met his eyes, they were _pleading_ with her. "Please, please, _please,_ " He begged, his will forgotten, "I'll be good. I'll be good. I'll be _so_ good—I'll do anything. 'M good. _Please_."

Ochako imagined that her eyes looked pretty wild—she _felt_ wild and powerless to the man in bed with her. This was it, he'd really done it in for her—she'd never be able to get enough of him.

"You _are_ good, Katsuki," She told him fiercely, reaching for his face to wipe away his tears as best as she could, "So good. So perfect." He looked away from her, sniffling, "Hey," She protested, "Look at me." It was like he couldn't disobey, he turned his head back to her at her command. She smiled fondly at him, "You are the most beautiful person I've ever met—you're so _strong_. You've worked so hard to get where you are today. You've worked so hard to open up to me, to give this to me. You _are_ good. Alright?"

Tears coursed down the contours of his face harder than before.

"Yeah," He choked out.

"That's right," She grinned, her hand sliding down his jaw to wrap around his neck, "Good boy."

He shuddered at her praise.

"Now come for me, Katsuki."

Eyes connected, she leaned forward again and swallowed Katsuki's cock as far as she could in one go, hollowing her cheeks around it. He came hard almost immediately, obediently, his back arching high off the bed and his mouth letting out a variety of curses and praises and _thank you's_ littered with her name as he released hot into her mouth. It was an explosion, a supernova of release littered with the deep emotions they each held for the other. It was hot and beautiful, and so fucking bright. And Ochako couldn't force herself to look away; she was entranced with the way he succumbed to the implosion of his own control. For her. He'd done that for _her._

His abdomen clenched and unclenched beautifully as his orgasm rocked through him, aftershocks of pleasure making his eyes roll to the back of his head as she worked him through it. Ochako did her best to swallow down all of his cum, but the intensity of his climax was too much and she ended up needing to pull away. The tail end of his orgasm coated itself onto her lips and chin, which she wiped away with the back of her hand.

As Bakugou calmed down, his body still twitching slightly, Ochako took this opportunity to study him.

He looked fucked out of his mind—his eyes were glazed over like he wasn't even _present_. This was definitely the most docile she'd _ever_ seen him and she wondered lazily when she could do this for him again. One fix and she was ruined.

She wiped her hand on the sheets and then crawled up the bed to press herself against his side. She was still in her pajamas, so she pulled the blanket up and over his legs to at least provide him with a little dignity when he finally came back to her.

She stroked his hair affectionately while she waited, admiring his beauty. His long eyelashes were still wet with tears, and his entire upper body was flushed with exertion. The sweet, sugary smell of nitroglycerin that was so unique to him encompassed their little love bubble and his entire body looked like it was gleaming with sweat. He still had his arms above his head as if her simple instructions of keeping them there had melted into his very bones.

Another minute passed, and Ochako saw him slowly blinking—saw awareness returning to his eyes. It wasn't long before he was turning to her and offering her a shaky smile.

"Holy _shit_ ,' Chako," He murmured quietly, releasing his arms from where they were still positioned over his head and snaking an arm around her so that he could pull her close to his sweaty body. The shirt that was still rucked up to his armpits fell down his torso slightly and Ochako slipped her hand underneath to pet his sides firmly enough so as not to tickle him but light enough to be comforting.

"You did good, Kacchan," She whispered, pressing a kiss to his temple, "That meant so much to me, you know? That you trust me so much."

Katsuki snorted, pecking her lips and looking into her eyes meaningfully, "I only trust you with that shit because you're the most badass person I've ever met. You know that, right?"

Ochako rolled her eyes—they both knew that wasn't the whole truth. So much of this had been building up ever since they were forced to run off together. She was certain that he would have never allowed himself this if he first hadn't learned what it was like to be _honest_ with someone, to _trust_ someone. But she let it slide, nodding because he was definitely back to his usual gruff self but with a skip to his attitude that had been missing the past couple of days.

"Say," He started, hands roaming south, "You didn't get off, didja?"

"You don't have to—" She started, even as his hand was slipping inside of her pajama shorts and underwear.

"Shaddup," He decreed, long fingers slipping through her wet folds. Ochako's breath hitched and she grabbed onto the front of his shirt for stability. She was already close—how could she not be after seeing Katsuki come undone completely?

His clever fingers teased the entrance of her heat and he let two slip inside to the knuckle without meeting any resistance. She could feel his smile against her forehead as he slowly pumped them deeper inside of her.

"How's that?" He muttered into her ear, his other hand joining it's counterpart down her pants.

"S'good," Ochako said, little gasps escaping her lips as he began to finger her.

"You're so fuckin' _wet_. Fuck."

And god, this cocksure, dirty-mouthed Katsuki was just as mind numbing as the compliant, polite Katsuki

The hand that wasn't preoccupied with fucking her found her swollen clit and started massaging it with determination. Her hips gyrated on his fingers, and her soft gasps were turning into harsh inhalations and drawn out moans. The more she squirmed, the faster he worked his fingers until she was coming with a high-pitched moan and soaking him with her slick. He worked her through it, slowing down his motions as her pleasure turned into oversensitivity.

He removed his hands once she had stopped twitching, wiping them on the bed sheets.

"We made a fuckin' mess," He muttered sleepily, his head falling onto hers, "We should change the bedding."

"Mmkay," She agreed through heaving breaths, sitting up and slipping out of her soaked shorts. She watched in muted interest as Katsuki rose to his feet—his shirt was soaked with his own sweat and so he peeled it off and tossed it the side. He rummaged around her drawers for a towel and for a change of clothes for her as well, Ochako taking special interest in his bare backside. She's seen it before on accident, but now she felt no remorse in giving it a proper ogle.

A black shirt hit her face as she was admiring him and when it fell into her lap she immediately recognized the fabric as one of Katsuki's shirts that she'd stolen.

She stood up on shaky legs, tearing her eyes away from Katsuki's naked figure and stripping herself from her own shirt and bra to wear the bigger one he provided. It fell to mid-thigh on her, basically swallowing her whole, and when she caught a glimpse of Bakugou she committed to memory the way his eyes were glued to her.

Katsuki shook his head and then wiped himself down with the towel before clamoring back into his discarded boxer shorts.

They worked together on replacing the bed linens, Ochako giggling whenever they bumped hips and Katsuki grumbling at her to ' _quit fuckin' being so cute'_.

When everything had been refreshed, they fell onto the blankets in a mess of limbs. They shared a few sloppy kisses, still feeling the high of what they had just done together. But eventually Katsuki pulled away grumbling.

"It's late, angel," He declared, turning her around so that he could spoon up behind her, "M'tired."

She snorted, "It's not even ten o'clock."

He shushed her, one of his hands sneaking underneath her shirt and finding refuge on her bare stomach. She rolled her eyes, but leaned back into his touch. Her eyes fell shut, and the weight of exhaustion that had built up over the past couple of days smacked her like the sliding glass door you didn't think was closed. The last thing she remembered before slipping into unconsciousness was the soft press of lips to the back of her neck.


	6. kings and queens

**_chapter six:_** **kings and queens**

That night with cheeks had been the exact kind of stress relief he had needed. Obviously not all of his fucking problems had been solved, but he _was_ able to finally focus during training. Aizawa had stopped bitching at him, he had stopped bitching at _himself_ , and soon they'd be infiltrating some bitch ass villain's lair to initiate the first phase of their plan to save the day.

Life was as great as it could be in this fucked up situation.

Katsuki was slipping into his hero costume—the stealth version that wasn't quite as bright and obvious and also had modified gloves with built in silencers in place of his gauntlets. His eyes kept trailing over to Ochako, who was, for the most part, already geared up. She was messing with her hair in the mirror; she'd taken to tying up her hair recently, but today it just wasn't cooperating with her.

He paused in getting ready, dropping the glove that he'd been prepared to slide onto his fingers. He walked up behind Ochako, kicking the desk chair over with him. He knocked her hands out of her hair and then shoved her down into the chair by her shoulders. Before she could even ask what he was doing, he threaded his fingers through her brown strands and began braiding on one side of her head.

"Thank god I have you, Kacchan," She told him, sounding relieved, "I hate how my hair gets in my face when I'm trying to kick ass."

"Yeah, yeah," He rolled his eyes, cheeks red, and pulled the braids tight so that the hair would stay in place as he continued to work, "But don't you dare even _think_ of cutting it any shorter."

She quirked her head to the side, and Katsuki forced her head back to where it had been so that he could more easily braid. He glared at her, a silent plea for her to _quit moving_.

"Do you have a thing for longer hair?"

"Tch."

No way in hell he was going to admit that he'd be a little put out if she decided to chop her hair only because he'd miss _braiding_ it for her. That was the sappy kind of shit that best remain within him, if only so that he can stew in his thoughts of her and become even more infatuated with the damned woman.

"Hair is hair," He said cryptically, "But yours…isn't bad."

"Thanks," She said sarcastically, but leaned back into his hands and didn't say another word until he finished. He eventually tapped her shoulder, holding out his hand for a hair tie that she slipped into his fingers. He tied off her hair at the base of her neck and then stooped down to place a kiss to the top of her head.

She smiled, standing up to inspect his work in the mirror.

"It looks like a crown," She observed, straining her neck on both sides so she could see.

"Fancy that," He remarked, turning back to where the rest of his uniform was so that she wouldn't see his blush because he _definitely_ didn't see her as a fuckin' queen. Nope. Not him.

Small arms wrapped around his waist from behind as he began putting on his gloves. "Hey," She said softly, squeezing him and digging her face into the muscle between his shoulder blades, "I kind of love you."

" _Haaah?"_ He spun around in her arms, equipment forgotten once again, glaring down at her brown eyes. He shoved her arms up so that his own could encircle her waist and then he stuffed her head into his chest so that he wouldn't have to look her in the eyes if _this_ was the kind of conversation they were apparently having. "Who the hell you think you are just _throwing_ that at me, cheeks?

She giggled and he was a little mortified when she _snuggled_ into the cleavage of his pecs.

" _Bakutiddies,"_ She whispered, almost to herself. Bakugou felt all the blood in his body rush up to his face to heat his cheeks even more.

"That's even _worse_ ," He growled, shoving her even further into his chest as punishment, "What the fuck is wrong with you? Saying sappy shit, then ruining it with _the_ most idiotic word of all time made up by _the_ most grotesque human being I've ever met! Fuckin' embarrassing. You. Need. To. _Die_." He emphasized this by continuing to suffocate her with his pecs.

Ochako giggled again, laying a kiss where the v of his shirt dipped down. She tried to pull away to look at him and hopefully apologize because _damn_ he deserved it, but Katsuki held her there seeing as he was still unwilling to look her directly in the eye after all of that fuckery.

She whined, scratching at his back futilely.

He could feel her shit eating grin against his skin as her hands travelled to his sides.

"Don't you fucking dare," He threatened, removing a hand from her head to place on her back just in case he needed a countermeasure. He wished that Ochako had never discovered how fucking ticklish he was.

She whined again, dropping her hands to her sides, "Kat _sukiiii_."

" _What."_

"You're supposed to say it back!"

"That's presumptuous as fuck," He rumbled, digging his nose into her hair violently, "Not to mention sappier than a fucking tree. Can we just pretend like I said it back?"

Her hand smacked the back of his hand—not enough to hurt, just enough for him to get the message and roll his eyes. He sighed dramatically. And then, softly: "I love you too, 'Chako."

She chirped happily, embracing him tightly.

"…Even though you're a little shit."

" _Because_ I'm a little shit."

Katsuki laughed, fond and shaky, "Yeah."

»»-¤-««

Phase one was a simple extraction. Get in, grab the Togami's, get out. Hopefully without confrontation. Aizawa would be there to use Erasure if need be, but they were really all trusting one another in this. If any of them had to be subjected to Parasite again, they'd lose it. They were _tired_ of this shit.

It was time to show these villains just exactly what they were capable of.

After interrogating Coordinate and then later confirming with Kawaguchi, they were almost positive they knew the location that Togami Maho and Miho were being kept. Aizawa at first was skeptical that they'd keep their hostages in the same warehouse if they were aware that Coordinate was in the heroes' custody _and_ Kawaguchi had left with an entire warehouse of captives, but Akiko had assured him that her sisters were idiots and don't actually have as much resources as they want the heroes to think.

When Tsukauchi affirmed that Kawaguchi was being honest and when Ochako, Shinsou, Tokoyami, Kirishima and Jirou affirmed that Akiko's sisters were indeed dumbasses, he gave the okay to go forward with their mission on the premise that they take even more precautions than they would normally—it would be pretty shitty if this wasn't the right location and tipped the villains off.

"Do you hear anything, Jirou?" Ochako asked, her hand to her communicator and the other holding a pair of binoculars to her face.

"Just those two idiots bickering," Jirou's voice responded, followed by a heavy sigh, "I had almost forgotten how annoying they are."

"Ah, fuck," Kawaguchi grumbled from Ochako's left, "Me too." She turned to Bakugo with a stern look, "If you let me fall into their annoying ass clutches, I'll kill ya, kid."

Katsuki smirked, wrapping a gloved hand around Kawaguchi's arm, "If you're with me, you're in good hands."

Akiko eyed the grip he had on her warily, "Ah, yes. Good _explosive_ hands."

Bakugou bristled, opening his mouth with angry eyes.

"If both of the Kawaguchi dumbasses are inside, it has to mean Togami is being held here," Jirou continued, cutting off whatever Katsuki was about to say, "Her quirk is activated through touch, yeah?"

"S'what her file said," Ochako stated.

"East side is vacant," Jirou informed them, "That's you three."

Ochako nodded, reaching out to Kawaguchi and patting her arm with all five of her fingers—there was a pink glow and the woman startled at the sensation of not being grounded to the earth. Ochako ignored her, grabbing her and maneuvering her onto Katsuki's back. They had taken the time to fasten hooks onto his hero costume and had provided Akiko with a vest that would fasten her to him. Katsuki hooked the caribiners to his vest and motioned for the Kawaguchi to wrap her arms around his torso.

"Just for clarification," Shinsou's voiced sounded into their ear's, "When you say 'you three' you don't mean me, Kirishima, and Tokoyami?"

"Shut the _fuck_ up, zombie eyes," Bakugou grit into his communicator, "Are _you_ on the east side?"

"All I'm saying is that it could be confusing," Shinsou affirmed, "We need team names."

"Ooh," Kirishima chimed, sounding excited, "Can we be team Dead Inside?"

"Yes," Shinsou retorted quickly, "Absolutely. Confirmed. If you don't refer to us as that, we're not listening."

"Fucking good luck, then," Bakugou growled, ducking forward through the trees they'd been hiding in while scanning in his mind what the best path to the warehouse would be.

Jirou sighed over the comms, "Let's just fucking save our friends so we can get some stability back in our class, yeah? I'll call you Team Dumbasses versions one and two, how about that?"

"Can we be Team Dumbasses version one?" Tokoyami inquired.

Jirou snorted, "Sure. I guess Shinsou's his own Dumbass though since he's gotta split when Ochako sends her signal."

"This is a covert mission where stealth is required to be successful," Aizawa's exasperated voice cut through them all—their teacher was Jirou's backup should the need arise, "All of you need to _stop talking_ unless it's _mission related."_

Ochako had to force herself to not giggle at Katsuki's equally exasperated, " _Thank_ you."

»»-¤-««

 _"We have no idea what will happen if we find Togami and find her under Parasite_ ," Kawaguchi had told them, " _Your plan hinges on her, one: being an actual unwilling hostage, and two: remaining rational upon being forced out of my idiotic sister's quirk."_

 _"That's what Shinsou's for,_ " Aizawa had assured her, " _He'll meet with Bakugou and Ochako once you've determined that she needs to be woken up at all—he can force her to be compliant should she be panicked or unwilling to cooperate."_

But Shinsou refusing to brainwash the hysterical woman hadn't been in their fucking plan.

"They have my mom!" Togami blubbered, dirty and ragged and clutching onto Ochako's hand like a lifeline, "I'm not leaving without her! I can't! Please don't force me to! She's all I have left!"

Ochako tapped her earpiece, squeezing Maho's hand, "Status, Jirou?"

"You're still in the clear," Jirou affirmed, "The idiot Kawaguchi sisters haven't noticed a thing."

Ochako nodded, lowering her free hand to rub soothing circles on Togami's back, "Please calm down, miss. We're trying to help you."

Bakugou growled, rounding on Shinsou in the darkened room, "We need you right now, fuckface. The longer it takes for you to figure out what the fuck you need to do, the more we're all at risk to getting shit on by the villains again—so what's it gonna be?"

Shinsou glared at Katsuki, one arm shooting in front of himself defensively, ready to take Bakugou on should the blonde try and use force on him, "I already fucking told you—I'll use my quirk on you assholes during training and on villains to _save_ people. But I _won't_ force a civilian into my brainwashing if they're unwilling—especially if she's certain that her own mother's life is at stake."

"Haah? That's not what I'm talking about, dead eyes," Katsuki grumbled heatedly, "I got that the first time you said it. What I _meant_ was: what's the fucking plan now? If you're not gonna calm her down, then we gotta find her mom, right? That was _your_ call. So fucking _lead_ us so we can get the _fuck_ out of here."

Maho let out a watery choke of gratitude at Katsuki's words.

Shinsou's determind gaze had quickly morphed into an expression of surprise. He blinked at Bakugou like the blonde had grown another head. He glanced over at Ochako and Kawaguchi as if they could tell him whether or not this was reality. Ochako only nodded, showing her support to Katsuki's words and causing Hitoshi to gape further. Akiko shrugged.

"Uh," He started, making eye contact with Bakugou again, "Um." He inhaled deeply, and then trudged over to Togami.

"Hey," He said, setting a palm down on her shoulder comfortingly, "We're going to save your mom, okay? Guaranteed. But I still need you to go with Uraraka and Bakugou. The rest of us will make sure your mom is safe," He smiled, so uncharacteristic of him, "You can count on us, alright?"

"A-alright," Maho hiccupped, patting his hand almost unconsciously.

"You're absolutely sure that they're keeping her in this facility?" Shinsou inquired further.

Togami nodded, wiping at her runny nose with the sleeve of her shirt.

Hitoshi glanced towards Kawaguchi, "You wouldn't happen to have any idea of where they'd keep a hostage?"

"We're gonna need more time for this, kid," Akiko sighed.

"Already on it," Kirishima said into the comms.

There was an ominous cracking, distant and muffled by the thin walls around them, followed by a thundering sound outside of the warehouse, like Kirishima had just punched his way through the bottom of a tree and then smirked when it landed on the forest ground with deafening reverberations.

"Eijrou," Katsuki growled, "If you get caught, I'm going to fucking murder you!"

"I won't," Kirishima laughed, sounding a lot like he was running, "Trees fall over all the time!"

"That's the shittiest cover I've ever—!"

Ochako placed a steady palm on Katsuki's shoulder, knowing full well that his anger towards the redhead stemmed from not wanting to lose anyone else to these memory-manipulating bastards. "It's too late to stop him now," She said softly, feeling Katsuki melt under her touch, "Let's go." She shared a heavy look with Kawaguchi and Shinsou, nodded towards the duo, and then left with Togami shouldered between herself and Bakugou.

"Dumb and Dumber have left the warehouse to check out Kirishima's crash," Jirou informed them, "Fall to the east."

"Hear that, Shitty Hair?" Katsuki whispered harshly into his communicator, "Fall to the fucking east."

"I was already on it, Bakugou," Kirishima chirped, "But it's always good to know you care."

"Tch."

"Make this quick, Shinsou," Aizawa grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah," Shinsou grumbled back, "We're gonna save the day, count on us, blah blah blah. Me n' Tokoyami got this."

"We really do," Tokoyami affirmed.

»»-¤-««

Togami Miho and Maho's reunion was touching enough to even stir something from within Katsuki—it was nice to step outside of his constant grumpiness and feel that anchoring feeling that maybe there's actually a lot of beauty in the world. And maybe this is really why he wants to be a hero. You know, outside of the victories and the fame and the notoriety.

Shinsou looked especially enraptured by their gratitude of simply _finding_ one another again.

"You did good," Aizawa had told him, a hint of pride in his eyes.

When they got back to the compound—thankfully all of them intact—their thrill of this victory was short lived when Aizawa received a message from All Might telling them to turn on the news.

"Goddammit," Bakugou barked, tightening his grip around Ochako's shoulders.

" _No,_ " Ochako breathed beside him.

"Uraraka, Bakugou, Shinsou," Aizawa said, "We're going back out. Kirishima, Tokoyami, Jirou," They nodded, letting their teacher know that he had their full attention, "Keep an eye on the Togami's." Aizawa moved to powerwalk back they way they came, his pupils close behind him, but Togami Maho's voice stopped them.

"Hold on!" She exclaimed, hurrying after them before they could get too far, "Please, take my hand before you leave! I'll give you my strength in this fight!" She grabbed Aizawa's hand, squeezing meaningfully. Then she turned to Ochako, Katsuki and Hitoshi to do the same.

"You've already made contact with my skin," Shinsou muttered, cheeks red as she patted the back of his hand.

"Doesn't hurt to do it again!" She beamed, her soft smile in complete contrast with her dark clothing and the tattoos adorning her body.

Aizawa eyed Maho warily as she moved on to grasp Bakugou's hand firmly between both of hers.

"…Please don't accidently blow up a city."

Bakugou bristled, and Ochako felt how his irritation travelled up his entire body.

»»-¤-««

The Todoroki household had been torn to _shreds_ with thousands of ice spears—although no one had been home during the attack, and Bakugou _knows_ that Icyhot isn't stupid enough to have done that without purpose. This was obviously a decoy, or some kind of trap. That wasn't the question. The question was: is this part of those memory manipulators' plans or was this part of _Todoroki's_ plans?

Also the fact that their shitty brainwashing had worked on the young hero-to-be made Bakugou all sorts of angry—at the villains responsible, but also at the half n' half bastard himself. That dickhead was supposed to better than this—all of the dickheads who'd been susceptible were supposed to be better than this. Even Monoma, who was an annoying asshole, _yes_ , but he wasn't fucking _evil_.

God, those bastards really let these _kids_ free to wreak their made up vengeance on the world…

"Fuck," He murmured to himself, as they observed the Todoroki residence from the distance with trepidation.

"This is messed up," Shinsou agreed.

"No—" It _was_ messed up, but Katsuki had other things on his mind, "I just…I don't think half n' half is the only fucker we're gonna have to deal with tonight."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow at him, but lowered his goggles over his eyes in preparation.

Katsuki felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Then, before any of them could even fucking _blink_ there was a flash of green electricity, and a force that smashed into Katsuki's side like an oncoming semi except worse. Bakugou flew backwards through the trees, twigs cutting up his skin as he went. He wondered when gravity would finally pull him back down, but as he was contemplating that thought his body collided with the thick trunk of a tree. He groaned, pain erupting down his back. He blinked the tears forming at the corners of his eyes away, glancing around frantically.

"Deku," He growled, unable to see the boy but knowing he was there.

Wind shook the trees, and Bakugou had half a mind to dive forward. One of Deku's annoying ass air currents shattered the tree he'd just been flung into. God, Izuku's affinity to flicking powerful attacks with only his stupid fingers had been grating on his nerves their entire high school experience, had been their saving grace more times than he could count while in their fake life as hero partners, and was instantly grating on his nerves once again.

Deku was hiding in the fucking shrubbery, sending attacks at him from every direction in quick succession. Katsuki managed to dodge a few of them, but most of them hit their mark.

He grunted as he was sent backwards on his ass, _again_.

"Fucking, _Deku_ ," He growled, spitting blood into the leaves and dirt beneath him, "Fucking _show_ yourself."

Deku and Todoroki didn't stand a chance against all of the fucking pros who had been called to the scene—but, fuck, Bakugou didn't stand a chance against this nerd one on one. Not when Midoriya's intent was so obviously malevolent. And Deku knew it. It was why he kept pushing Bakugou further and further away from their friends.

"What the fuck did they do to you!?" He screamed into the night, scanning the trees to try and predict Izuku's next attack, "Hah? Did they do the right thing and make you fucking bitter over all the shit I did to ya? Like you shoulda been in the first place?!" A flash of green, and there was a fist colliding with his stomach.

Bakugou buckled, clutching his stomach and coughing up blood.

"I don't want to kill you, _Kacchan_ ," Deku told him, low, "But I do wanna get _close_."

"Pussy," Katsuki wheezed, watching Izuku emerge from the trees to take slow steps towards him, "Th'Deku I know woulda punched me to the fuckin' moon by now."

A pair of strong hands picked him up by his shirt, until Bakugou's feet were hovering a foot above the ground.

"I'm not really sure what you're talking about, Kacchan," Deku said, a hint of murder in his tone, "And I don't really even care. The only thing I've had on my mind on for the past _month_ has been finding you and making you feel how I felt." He grinned, manic and completely unlike anything he's ever seen on Deku's face. Katsuki's eyes widened when Izuku lowered one hand from Bakugou's shirt and pulled a syringe out his side bag, "In every way possible."

"Where the _fuck_ did you come by that?" He inquired desperately, thrashing in Deku's hold as his mind jumped to the only conclusion that made sense in context of the nerd's words: somehow Izuku had gotten hands on the drug that took away quirks and was one-hundred percent ready to use it on him.

Deku brandished the thing menacingly.

"Deku," Katsuki pleaded as Izuku brought the syringe closer and closer to him, "Don't."

Deku laughed in his face, and Katsuki _hated_ it. Not because Izuku was clearly mocking him, but because this wasn't _Deku_. This was some twisted version of the boy he grew up with, but it wasn't _him_. It _wasn't_ the boy he promised both himself and Ochako that he'd apologize to. And how could he in this moment? _This_ Deku would only take his apology as a poor attempt of escaping the permanent erasure of his damned quirk.

"You're meant to be a fucking _hero_ , Deku," Bakugou growled, trying in vain to kick himself out of Izuku's grasp on him, "So wipe that disgusting look off your face, alright? Snap the fuck out of this! Who do you fucking look up to, huh? What about All Might!? Do you even remember where you got that fancy quirk of yours, or did they take that from you too?"

Deku blinked up at him, his confusion distracting him momentarily.

"Fuck," Bakugou whispered, "They did, didn't they? Those fucking bastards!"

"You're not making any sense, Kacchan," Izuku told him, shaking off his momentary lapse of confusion and moving his arm back to strike at Katsuki's skin with the needle. Katsuki shut his eyes, unprepared and absolutely _terrified_ at the possibility of losing his quirk.

But the stab never came.

And Katsuki was no longer being held up by Deku, although his feet still weren't on the ground like they should be.

"Fuckin' _get him_ , cheeks," He called to Ochako, once he got his bearings. He noticed instantly that rather than simply nullifying the effects of gravity he was slowly rising higher and higher like he now had some sort of reversed upward force acting on him. It must have been Maho's quirk amplifying Ochako's; he grabbed onto a tree branch before it became too much of a problem.

" _Don't_ touch him, Deku," Ochako warned, stooping down into a battle stance—the one Katsuki had been working on with her the past couple of weeks—and blocking Deku's path to where Bakugou was floating. She'd used her quirk on Deku to send him flying. He was in a similar state as Bakugou, hanging onto the trees to stay grounded. Ochako eyed the both of them in curiosity, and then mischief flashed across her brown eyes when she saw that she had the upper hand.

"Hold on, Katsuki!" She commanded, tapping her fingers to the bark of the tree he was holding onto for dear life. The ground underneath her cracked and shook, the roots of the tree fighting to escape the confines of the earth surrounding them. Katsuki yelped as one of the larger roots on one side of the tree erupted out of the ground, causing the tree (and himself) to tip to one side unexpectedly.

"You're fuckin' _crazy_!" He yelled at her, wrapping his arms around the branch to koala himself around it. His muscles screamed in protest, but the adrenaline launching through his veins helped him to ignore the pain and hold on.

"Be useful up there and set this tree on fire, babe," She called up sweetly, wrapping her arms around the base of the tree and lifting to help boost it off the ground.

Bakugou cursed, setting off explosion after explosion to start a fire—he wasn't really sure where she was going with this, but he was well acquainted with her knack for coming up with risky and out-of-the-box plans. He'd been on the receiving end of that knack on more than one occasion. As a result, naturally, he decided to just trust her on this.

"Fly over to another tree!" She called once he found success in the task he'd been given. Which hadn't taken long, considering how powerful his quirk was thanks to Togami's help.

He complied easily, not caring to get close to the flames he'd just conjured. He used his quirk to push against the force that was working to push him up instead of down while simultaneously blasting him forward.

With a grunt Ochako yanked the last of the tree out of the ground and then proceeded to swing it around. The fire that Katsuki had started on its leaves jumped to the dryer parts of the other trees, and the air was quickly becoming thick with smoke. She apparently wasn't satisfied, however, and cleverly used the tree in her arms to act as a fan to the flames. Katsuki gaped at the sight, watching in awe as the flames grew.

She was making a signal for the other pros to follow.

God, she's so fucking _wild_.

With a final swing, Ochako sent the tree flying towards where Deku was still gripping tightly to his own tree branch and then brought her fingertips together to release her quirk. Bakugou felt the return of gravity instantly, and he let go of the tree that had been anchoring him and set off an explosion directly beneath him to soften his fall. Deku wasn't so lucky, however, considering how he had to deal with the force of an entire tree breaking through the base of his tree and all of the trees surrounding him. Ochako had sliced through them like it was nothing, leaving an explosion of wood splinters and fire in her wake.

Now wasn't the time to dwell on how fucking in _love_ he was with her, but dammit he couldn't just witness shit like _this_ and not have those kind of thoughts murder his brain ruthlessly. She was fucking _shredding_ his heart with how badass she was.

 _"Look, kids,_ " Kawaguchi had told them while they were going over the logistics of their rescue operation, " _The thing with their shitty plan is that they have to do a shit ton of memory manipulation to completely spin someone's world view. That's fragile. I know because they did it to me. Things were so confusing because not everything fit together right—the way people acted around me, the way they tiptoed around certain topics like they'd trigger something if they weren't careful. It's always gonna be too fucking fickle. You got that? Your friends are stronger than this fucking quirk, and the faster you figure out what they twisted the faster you can reconnect all the right memories. They'll all be okay. You'll all be okay. They really got no power over you."_

But Katsuki didn't really know how to _do_ any of that when Deku was suddenly standing in front of him with a flash of green lightning, bloodied and bruised, and restraining Ochako with the syringe pointed threateningly at her neck. The flames were licking at Izuku's clothing, like the nerd had recklessly jumped through the fire to catch them off guard.

His heart about stopped.

Something in Deku's eyes flashed shrewdly.

"Would you look at this," Izuku said mockingly, the flames behind him burning brighter and brighter, "You actually _care_ about someone other than yourself." Bakugou winced, both at the sentiment and that such mocking words were leaving Izuku's mouth at all.

He knew that Aizawa would be here soon along with the other pros, and Deku probably knew it too. Whatever was about to happen here was going to happen quickly.

"Tell me," Izuku continued, voice low and bitter, "Would you still care for her if she was quirkless?"

"Izuku," Katsuki choked out, tears pooling in his eyes, "Don't."

Izuku grinned, inching the needle closer and closer to her. Ochako's own eyes were spilling over with tears; Katsuki wanted nothing more than to wipe them away and prove to her that everything would be okay.

"Please," He begged, "She doesn't deserve it!"

"And I did?"

Bakugou growled.

"Fuck no!" He shouted, hands clenched in tight fists, "Anyone who looked hard enough could see that if anyone deserved to be a hero, it was you! So don't play this fucking game with me! Let her _go_. You'd never fucking forgive yourself if you took her quirk away…"

"What's wrong with being quirkless, Kacchan!?" Deku yelled, "What the fuck is wrong with it?"

"You understand more than anyone how this fucking world works!" Katsuki yelled back, eyeing the syringe in Deku's hand with desperation in his eyes, "It's fucked up, alright? Just," He held up his hands, trying to placate Izuku, "Just—not her! Take away my fucking quirk before you even _think_ about taking hers."

Izuku regarded him with wide eyes, eyes that were obviously trying to reconcile something that didn't make sense.

"You're not like I remembered," He finally whispered.

"No," Katsuki agreed, "Fuck. I'm not—I'm not who I was. And I'm _sorry_ for all the shit I've put you through." Katsuki stumbled forward, falling to his knees in front of him and Ochako as a man ready to atone for his mistakes, "I'm sorry, dammit!" Tears streamed down his face, and his voice was rough with emotion, "Just—don't do this!"

He choked on a sob.

"Please," He cried, hoping All Might would forgive him later for revealing their secret to another person. But these were drastic measures, and Bakugou couldn't think of anything else to save Deku from acting on something that he would surely regret, "Don't let them take away your dreams! You think All Might gave you his quirk just for you to get your revenge on a piece of shit like me?"

Izuku's eyes widened. As did Ochako's.

"What," Izuku started, much more softly than before, "What are you talking about?"

Katsuki growled.

"Rack your fucking brain, Deku! Think back and pick apart all the _bullshit_ and just try and remember the moment when All Might acknowledged you! You! Quirkless and supposedly useless Deku!"

Izuku's grip on Ochako loosened slightly, and Katsuki let out a relieved breath.

"All M-might?" Deku said dumbly, lowering the syringe away from Ochako's throat and stepping away from her. Ochako reached for him, grabbing onto Deku's wrist to pull him away from the growing flames, "All Might told me I couldn't be a hero."

"No," Katsuki disagreed, the pain and exhaustion of the day catching up to him, "That's a lie. He gave you One for All."

"One…for all?"

Katsuki saw something flash across Izuku's eyes, something similar to the lightning that rippled through his body when he used his quirk.

"Deku!" Shinsou's voice called from behind Katsuki, just beyond the trees, "Walk away from the flames and follow us without resistance!" The muscles of Deku's face slackened, his mouth hanging open like it always did when Shinsou managed to trick him into accepting brainwash. Deku obediently stepped away from the growing flames and towards Hitoshi.

Ochako ran to Katsuki, stooping down to use her quirk on him and then helping him crawl onto her back.

"What about Todoroki?" Ochako inquired of Hitoshi once she had hefted Bakugou up.

"Aizawa-sensei got him."

"Hah…" Bakugou grunted next to Ochako's ear, "Nice trick there, dead eyes. Deku didn't even have to answer ya."

Hitoshi smirked, eyeing Izuku thoughtfully "He certainly was always easy to trick anyways. But Togami's quirk was pretty helpful here for all of us, huh? And I really couldn't let the two of you be the royalty of this operation, now could I?"

"M'the fuckin' king of explosion murder," Bakugou slurred competitively, feeling sleep calling for him, "N'Ochako's my queen so…we're the royalty of every fuckin' oper'tion." He flipped Shinsou off with the last bit of strength he could muster up before he closed his eyes and drifted off against Ochako's shoulder.

»»-¤-««

Ochako sent Bakugou a suspicious look when Naomasa informed them, while Bakugou was being doted on by a few nurses that had been brought to the hideout, that Midoriya had been woken up from the delusions in his mind. Katsuki didn't even look _surprised_. It was like he already knew that Deku had successfully fought through the demons in his head to break free from the memories that had been manipulated against him.

For that matter…All Might didn't seem too surprised either. Neither did Tsukauchi.

Ochako squinted at the three men.

As if reading her mind, Katsuki elbowed her in the ribcage and muttered, "You'll need to ask Deku." It was said so quietly so that she'd be the only one to hear, and it was followed up with a soft, "He'll probably want to see you anyways."

Ochako frowned, vowing to force Katsuki to visit Deku later as well.

»»-¤-««

Ochako knocked on Deku's infirmary door hesitantly, still a little unsure of his mental stability. She felt guilty at the unease she was feeling towards one of her best friends, but couldn't shake the picture of Katsuki staring up at her with desperate eyes as Izuku threatened to take her quirk away.

That had only been _twelve_ hours ago, after all.

"Come in," Izuku's kind voice called from the other side of the door. She blinked—it was so unlike the tone of voice he had used st night. The bitter, hateful tenor that had brought tears to her eyes.

Ochako cracked the door open, peeking through to find Izuku laying in the hospital bed and staring bored up at the television. His eyes were half lidded like he was on the verge of falling asleep, and the light pooling into the room haloed his green hair and emphasized the softness of his features.

Ochako's muscles relaxed, knowing that Izuku had shit to work through like all of them did but suddenly confident that he was in his right mind once again.

"Deku," She greeted quietly, slipping into the room and walking over to him. He perked up at the sight of her and threw his legs over the bed to face her. He smiled, but there was an edge of guilt in his eyes that she didn't like one bit. Without thinking about it, she threw her arms around him—she blames Bakugou. He's made her realize the wonders of physical touch and how much comfort it brings.

"Hey," He mumbled into her neck, arms wrapping around her tentatively.

"I'm so glad you're okay," She whispered into his hair.

"You're glad _I'm_ okay?" He inquired, "I almost took your quirk away…"

She snorted, "As if I would have let you."

Izuku shook his head, pulling away to gaze up at her with shimmering green eyes, "I know you're just trying to make me feel better, Ochako."

She grinned, "Is it working?"

Izuku laughed, pulling her back to him. A month ago, she would have been a blushing mess had he acted like this. Now she welcomed the contact, loving that she could share this kind of affection with him without having to worry about whether or not she held romantic feelings for him.

"A little," He admitted.

"Wanna talk about it?" She inquired, moving to sit down beside him. His arms retracted, but she looped her arm through his to keep contact with him.

Izuku sighed, running his hand through his green curls. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions," He said, probably referring to what Bakugou had revealed last night during their conflict—how All Might had passed his quirk onto the young hero-to-be.

Ochako shook her head.

"It's okay," She replied, "You don't have to explain—if it's a secret, it's a secret for a reason, right? The only reason I found out was because Bakugou thought it would help reverse the effects of the memory-manipulation quirk. And he was right, wasn't he?"

Izuku nodded.

"I don't really have anything to ask you about then," She continued, a small smile on her lips, "None of it changes our friendship—or who you are as a hero."

Deku let out a long exhale, allowing his head to fall onto her shoulder.

"All it took for me to play into their hands was for them to change one little detail," He told her quietly, "They changed how I viewed heroes—they made me believe that my quirk came from somewhere else. That All Might fervently believed that it was impossible for a quirkless kid like me to become a hero. That's all it took."

His fists clenched in anger.

"It's honestly still so confusing," He continued, staring at the wall darkly, "Reversing that bastard's quirk only means that I _remember_ what they don't want me to. But all the shit they implanted in my thoughts is still there."

She hummed, stroking her thumb over one of the scars on his forearm, "Like what?"

"Like everything that's fucked up about our society—I've noticed it all before, of course, but have never really been all that bitter about it. Or at least…bitter enough to turn to villainy."

Ochako's lip jutted out in contemplation. There _was_ a lot fucked up about their society, so she didn't really blame him.

"I'm almost positive they exaggerated the way Kacchan used to treat me before we were enrolled at U.A." Izuku ticked off, almost to himself, "And there's this entire new timeline in my head where I ran off to lead a life of villainy instead of going to U.A.," Izuku continued, "Which is why I didn't recognize you. But Kacchan mentioning One for All made something awake within me—like the predecessors of this quirk were reaching out to untangle the mess in my brain. I know what's right, of course I do," He said softly, "But I have to make an extra effort to separate the reality and the bullshit."

Ochako nodded in understanding—it had been the same for her in the beginning, when Katsuki had woken her up and told her to run. She still struggled with it sometimes.

"It gets easier," She told him, "Especially now that you're living in reality again."

"I worry for the others though," Izuku admitted, eyebrows scrunched together, "They don't have a crazy, sentient quirk to wake them up like I do. Or a childhood friend hell-bent on making sure they're following their dreams just so he can beat them there."

Izuku squeezed her arm closer to his body and laughed.

"Kacchan really saved us both, huh?" He asked, nudging her with his elbow playfully, "And _speaking_ of Kacchan—"

Ochako blushed, ripping her arm away from Deku so that she could cover her flustered face with her hands. If the teasing lilt in his tone had anything to say about it, then she definitely knew where he was about to steer this conversation.

Izuku grinned, "He _really_ likes you, Ochako. He was so _selfless_ , offering himself up to protect you. Whew," Deku fanned himself playfully, "What a _man_ you've got there."

"I _know_ , Deku!" She whined dramatically into her hands, "It really makes it hard to not think about him every second of the day!"

"Tell me all about it," Izuku requested dreamily, resting his head on his hand.

Ochako perked up, absolutely _in love_ with the idea of talking about her big fat crush (it was so much more than a crush) that she had on Bakugou with Izuku. It made her feel like they were younger, like they weren't being bombarded with darkness at every turn.

"Let me be the first to tell you, Izuku," She chirped happily and a little smugly, leaning back into the pillows and kicking her feet into his lap, "That Kacchan is an absolute _slut_ for cuddles."

Izuku _squealed_ at this information.

»»-¤-««

"The fuck you doin', nerd?" Katsuki grumped in alarm, as Izuku forced himself underneath his arm so that he could wrap his own around Bakugou's waist. Deku had been released from the infirmary in their little hideout and had come over to the main campus with Ochako and Aizawa in tow, and had immediately made his way over to Katsuki. The blonde squinted his eyes at Ochako, suspicious of Izuku's behavior and _knowing_ that his girlfriend had something to do with it.

"Aw, Kacchan," Izuku pouted, squeezing Bakugou's side (being wary of Katsuki's injuries) and grinning when Katsuki jumped, "Don't be like that. I just wanna talk!"

Bakugou growled, scowling over Deku's head at Ochako. She sent him a thumbs-up of encouragement. Katsuki rolled his eyes.

"Well then, come on," He relented, dragging Deku towards the dorms. Izuku laughed, coming with him willingly. Once they made it to Bakugou's room, the blonde pushed Deku inside and shut the door behind them. Izuku made his way over to the desk and sat atop it, smiling brightly at Katsuki.

"You gonna smile at me like a dumbass all day, or did you have something to say?"

"Ahh, Kacchan," Izuku said, "Always so impatient."

Katsuki squinted at him—Deku was being uncharacteristically mouthy with him. The bastard must think he's gone _soft_ or something.

"What did 'Chako tell you?"

Izuku grinned.

"Nothing, nothing," Izuku assured, his voice too calm and teasing—almost like he wanted Katsuki to know that he was full of bullshit. He winked at Bakugou, and then sobered up. "I just wanted to apologize to you."

Katsuki held back his grumpy retort at being teased so mercilessly and gulped instead, sitting down on the bed so they could be level with each other.

"I'm sorry that I threatened to take away your quirk," Izuku continued, fiddling with the seam of his pants absently, "And for threatening to take away Ochako's just to mess with you. That was probably really stressful for you, and I hate that I made you feel like that."

He glanced up at Katsuki, and froze at the pissed off look on the blonde's face.

"How," Bakugou started, hands clenched tightly around his knees, "How the _fuck_ do you say that so easily?"

Izuku blinked, surprised.

"Huh?"

"No. Fuck that," Katsuki continued, "You're not the one that should be apologizing."

Izuku shook his head, "What are you talking—"

"You weren't yourself, dumbass," Katsuki interrupted, sneering at him, "And you know what? Fuck you for apologizing first, dammit. _I_ was supposed to beat you to it. Now I've gotta catch up to you in that regard too, you bastard."

"Kacchan, what—?"

"Shaddup," Katsuki demanded, jabbing his finger towards Deku, "And listen. _I'm_ the sorry one. For being such a little shit to you when we were kids. For looking down on you—for assuming that you were looking down on _me_. For all the degrading bullshit I've thrown your way. You didn't deserve it, alright?" Katsuki glanced away from him, finding sudden interest in the wall, "And I think you're gonna make a great hero one day. Got it? One of the best." Katsuki glanced back up, frowning, "But not better than me, you bastard!"

Izuku gaped at him.

"Well?" Katsuki demanded, hating the awkward silence between them.

Izuku blinked again, coming back to himself.

And then he laughed.

"Apology accepted, Kacchan!" Izuku proclaimed, like it was easy, "But you know, you definitely apologized first. Last night, remember? So don't feel like you lost this one."

" _That's_ what you hung onto out of all that?" Katsuki screeched, palm up and explosions erupting out of it threateningly.

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, smiling at Bakugou like there had never been a rift in their friendship. "After everything Ochako has told me about your guys' relationship," He started, mischief in his eyes, "You're not really all that intimidating, Kacchan."

A cloud of irritation exploded around Katsuki and before he could think twice about it, he was tackling Izuku and wrestling with him on the floor of his room, red-faced and embarrassed.

»»-¤-««

"Kawaguchi is working with Todoroki to help him break free of this quirk," Aizawa informed them later on, "But for now, he's being watched—I'd advise that you all stay clear of where we're keeping him unless you're accompanied by myself or Miss Illusion."

Camie blew them a kiss, and Izuku laughed at the way it made Katsuki sneer.

"Aye aye," Shinsou intoned from the couch, sipping on a cup of coffee.

"When are we going to make our next move?" Kirishima pondered from Shinsou's other side. He had a bowl full of popcorn, and was throwing pieces at Tokoyami who was lying on the floor and catching them in his beak.

"Soon," Aizawa answered cryptically.

"When are we going to track down our two other idiot heroes turned villains?" Jirou inquired, twirling her earjacks around her fingers nervously. Ochako knew that she and Kaminari were close friends, and wondered if she was worrying over him specifically.

"Soon," Aizawa repeated.

»»-¤-««

That night, Katsuki and Ochako were sitting against the side of her bed on the floor just talking to one another—and _maybe_ they had been making out a little—when there was a soft knock at her door. Ochako, already having suspected that this would happen, pulled away from Katsuki and got to her feet to answer it.

"Hi," Izuku greeted bashfully, unsure if it was okay for him to intrude on her and Katsuki's time together.

"Deku," Ochako said brightly, opening her door further, "Come in."

Izuku shuffled in, bouncing on his toes as if to remind himself that he could run if need be. Katsuki crossed his arms at Izuku's intrusion, growling softly when Ochako sat slightly away from him out of respect to her guest.

"This is…awkward," Izuku declared, shrugging and sitting on the floor in front of them criss-cross apple-sauce. He brought his hand to his chin in thought, and immediately began mumbling to himself as he glanced between Katsuki and Ochako.

"Whaddya want, Deku?" Katsuki growled, throwing his arm behind Ochako's back.

Izuku startled, less at Bakugou's tone and more at being brought back out of his train of thought.

"Oh," He chimed, smiling, "Well, it was actually something Ochako said to me earlier—that it gets easier to cope with all the shit in my head because I'm living in reality again." Ochako smiled at that, glad that Deku put so much stock into her words. "And I was just thinking that my biggest concern right now is how the villains made me perceive…well…you, Kacchan. I figured the best way to keep my grip on what's real is to experience as much of the real deal as I can?"

Katsuki's eye twitched.

"So you're wanting to spend more time with me, huh?" He inquired with a roll of his eyes, "You coulda just asked."

"This is me asking," Izuku deadpanned.

"Ugh," Katsuki griped, looking away from Deku's expectant eyes, "This _is_ awkward."

Ochako elbowed him in the ribs.

Bakugou rolled his eyes, "But I wouldn't be opposed, nerd. I mean, we're…friends. Right?"

"Right!" Izuku beamed.

Silence fell on the trio, thick and unnerving. Ochako could see Katsuki twitching through his discomfort, and that Izuku was in a similar state. She rolled her eyes at them fondly. Getting up onto her knees, she grabbed her pillow and blanket from the bed. She threw the blanket over Katsuki's head and thrust the pillow into Izuku's gut.

"You two are hopeless," She declared, standing up and walking to the linen closet and pulling out more blankets and pillows, "We're officially building a blanket fort. So both of you get busy."

Izuku was practically vibrating in excitement at her suggestion, and he and Bakugou got to work immediately. They laid down several layers of blankets on the ground to make it as soft as possible before moving on to draping the blankets from the walls and off her desk chair. Katsuki was pretending to not be as into it as Deku was, but Ochako could see right through him as he placed pillows around the blanket fort with utmost care. Ochako dug around one of her desk drawers until she found the flashlight that was stowed away in there. She turned it on, waiting for Deku to turn the lights off before activating her quirk on it and placing it at the center of their fort. With that finishing touch, the three of them collapsed onto the blankets they had laid out on the floor.

"It's like we're kids again, Kacchan," Izuku observed from where he was lying next to Katsuki.

Bakugou snorted, reaching over to ruffle Izuku's hair, "Next time we'll have to save Ochako from an evil dragon or some other shit—then it'll really be like when we were kids."

Ochako scoffed, "How about me and Deku save _you_ from an evil dragon?"

"Hah!" Katsuki whipped his head around to grin at her, "Good luck! I'll already have tamed it by the time you two fuckwads get there."

Ochako and Izuku both giggled at that, wiggling closer to the blonde to steal his warmth. And Katsuki allowed it, throwing an arm around Ochako and not complaining when Izuku nuzzled his face into his shoulder. Katsuki might have even leaned into the contact a little. They laid like that for a while, enjoying the companionable silence and reveling in each other's presence.

Ochako hummed after a moment, "Hey, Deku."

Izuku picked his head up so he could peer at Ochako from over Bakugou's back, "Yeah?"

"Me and Katsuki have this deal where I get to ask him whatever I want once a day and then we both have to answer it honestly," She explained, reaching up to wind her fingers through blonde hair and scratching at Bakugou's scalp affectionately, "Since you're here, would you wanna answer the question too?"

"Wow!" Izuku exclaimed, "Kacchan _agreed_ to that?"

Katsuki growled half-heartedly at his friend.

"It was his idea actually," Ochako clarified, smiling.

Izuku's jaw fell open, but then he shook off his surprise a moment later. "Okay," He nodded, "I'll join in today!"

"Is that okay?" Ochako asked Katsuki, wondering suddenly if Katsuki would be offended because it was 'their thing' or something.

"Whatever."

Ochako grinned, racking her brain for a question that would be meaningful for Katsuki _and_ Izuku.

"Alright, boys," She started, feeling giddy about all of this for some unforeseen reason, "Favorite childhood memory! Go."

Katsuki and Izuku looked at each other as if sizing the other up before they both broke out into laughter. Katsuki flipped over onto his back so that he could look at the two of them better and pulled Ochako into his shoulder. Deku grinned at them, moving onto his side and bending his arm to prop his head against.

"You're not subtle at all, cheeks," Katsuki chuckled into her hair, endlessly amused by her self-appointed mission of making sure that he and Deku reconcile their friendship even if she has to force them on occasion.

She shrugged with a grin, nuzzling her nose into Bakugou's warmth and offering a hand to Deku who took it without blinking twice. Their hands settled together on Bakugou's stomach like Katsuki was the bridge that could bring her and Deku this close. Because there was definitely something different about Izuku's affection—like the depth of their friendship widened simply because of the new connection she had to Bakugou. She didn't really know how to label it, but she could accept that it was important and deep and _real_. More real than anything than anything she'd ever imagined between them before all of this chaos had been thrust upon them.

As if he was having a similar train of thought, she and Izuku both turned their attention to Katsuki at the same time, waiting expectantly to listen to what he had to say.

»»-¤-««

The recording device they had left at the warehouse they picked the Togami's up at slowly began trickling word to them that the students that were being held there were slowly waking up one by one—no doubt because those kids were experts on breaking out of Parasite by now. With this, they also became well aware of the villains' growing frustration of not being able to contain their hostages any longer.

It was when the elusive memory-manipulator finally made his appearance that they finally made their move.

"Tokoyami got a good look at their containment units," Aizawa told them, tapping on his watch that was displaying a holograph of the units in question, "They're pretty indestructible from the inside, but not so much from the outside. Between Midoriya, Bakugou, Kirishima and Tokoyami it shouldn't be a problem."

"We're still not sure who all are still under the effects of Parasite," Their teacher continued, "Nor are we sure how severely the students being held at these facilities have been effected. According to Kawaguchi, the one we infiltrated already held those who they found medium success on—but that could mean a plethora of things. Seeing as there's no way to have Shinsou at both warehouses, we're going to take the risk and keep him with Bakugou and Tokoyami and myself at the high-success facility in the event that he needs to enforce cooperation." He tapped his watch, and the holographic picture flipped to the two different facilities. The one they had already infiltrated was labeled facility A and the one they had yet to visit was labeled facility B. "Kawaguchi will go with Ochako, Kirishima, Midoriya and Jirou to help wake up hostages as needed at facility A."

Ochako straightened her back almost subconsciously, and she could see Katsuki smirking at her from the corner of her eyes.

"Now according to our intel," Aizawa continued, "Both Kawaguchi sisters are meeting their third party member at facility B—all three of these villains _must_ be taken into custody. Although splitting them up _will_ hinder any future plans they hold, each one of them are still capable of using their quirk without the help of the other's. The memory manipulator in particular—while his quirk is more effective when his victim is asleep, he can still alter your perception of reality when you're conscious. I'll have Erasure on my side, and Shinsou will also be there to force you awake should you be put to sleep—but we must avoid that at all costs. Understand?"

Shinsou, Bakugou and Tokoyami all nodded solemnly.

Aizawa grinned, and it was kind of terrifying.

"Good," He said, "Now I'm sure you all are aware that it was upon Tsukauchi's insistence that we were given this heavy task? There will be pros on sight to create a perimeter around each warehouse, to guide the escaped hostages to safety, and to provide backup if need be, but—" He gave them a meaningful look, "This is a chance given to you to save your friends and to send a message to the villains that you're a generation that shouldn't be messed with. So—"

"Plus ultra!" Kirishima exclaimed, throwing his arm in the air with the confidence of an entire army.

"Plus ultra!" Ochako parroted, whirling her fist around just as vigorously.

"Plus ultra!" Izuku shouted, grinning wildly.

"Plus ultra," Shinsou, Bakugou, Jirou and Tokoyami all proclaimed in unison much more quietly (but not any less enthusiastically).

Aizawa shut his open mouth, and pride for his students gleamed across his eyes. "That's right."

»»-¤-««

Togami Maho offered them her strength once again, although her mother insisted she rest easy for a while after her quirk being used so relentlessly against her will for months.

Maho only waved a dismissive hand in her mother's face.

"Don't be silly, mom," She told her, grabbing onto Ochako's hand and patting it fondly, "These heroes need my help! It's the least I can do after all the trouble I've put them through!" She moved onto Bakugou, smiling up at him brightly as she squeezed his arm.

" _You_ haven't been any trouble at all," He grumbled.

Maho laughed, holding her hands out to Izuku next. Midoriya threw up his gloved hands quickly.

"Please!" He insisted, "It's alright. I spent a lot of my first year breaking my bones every time I used my quirk—I really don't need to know what kind of effect your quirk will have on me!"

"The nerd would probably explode," Katsuki affirmed, smirking, "Into one sad, goopy mess of limbs."

"Thank you, Kacchan," Izuku snapped, rolling his eyes.

"At least he admitted it would be sad," Ochako pointed out.

"That's growth, right there!" Kirishima agreed.

»»-¤-««

Their task was almost _too_ easy, considering the villain's had abandoned this facility in favor of trying to salvage their 'more promising prospects'. Even if the students here were startled and unsure of whether of not to trust them, they all seemed to jump on the opportunity to escape.

Ochako was antsy to finish up this job quickly, wanting to provide backup to their other classmates at the more dangerous warehouse.

"You worried about Kacchan?" Izuku inquired after smashing through the lock on one of the containment units and then doing the same to the hinges on the door to compromise its integrity.

Ochako sighed, activating her quirk on the door and prying it from its hinges easily—she was prepared to use it as a weapon if the need came. They peeked into the cell and, luckily, came across a very awake Ashido.

"Mina?" Ochako asked tentatively, very aware that their classmate was probably pretty fragile at the moment and should therefore be approached with caution. Mina blinked at them, tears welling up in her eyes. Ochako threw the door away immediately, releasing her quirk on it.

"Midoriya!" She exclaimed, tears of hope spilling over her pink skin, "Ochako! Thank god!" She ran forward, throwing her arms around Ochako like she was her lifeline. "This is real, right?" Ashido inquired desperately, breaking both of their hearts.

Ochako brought her hand up to weave through pink tresses, "Yeah, Mina. It is."

They escorted Mina to one of the pros helping the freed hostages, petting her hair and consoling her with soft words until they handed her off to Camie. They moved on after that, making their way to the next containment unit.

"I'm worried about all of them," Ochako told Izuku, to answer his earlier question, "But, yes. Katsuki specifically."

"He can handle himself," Izuku said confidently.

"I know." God, did she know. "It's just that, they seemed to really want him exclusively for some reason. When he and I faced the Kawaguchi goons by ourselves, they targeted him first."

They cracked open another cell—it was a student from Shiketsu high that they'd never met before.

The next cell after that contained a sleeping Ectoplasm.

Ochako tapped her earpiece, "Kawaguchi. We need you on the west end."

"They must have separated the teachers so as to distribute the number of pro heroes they were keeping in one place," Izuku observed as they waited for Akiko to arrive and awaken the man.

Once Ectoplasm came to himself and digested the situation they were in, evacuating the facility became quick work thanks to his clones. Izuku and Ochako rendezvoused with Kirishima, Akiko and Jirou as they saw the last people out.

"Nice work, kids," Kawaguchi praised, bumping fists with Jirou.

"Did you find anyone from our class?" Kirishima inquired of Izuku and Ochako.

Izuku nodded, "Ashido, Kouda, Sero and Shouji. We also found Inasa from Shiketsu High. You?"

"Ojirou, Tsuyu, Aoyama, and Satou."

Izuku nodded again like he'd expected as much. "This must be their biggest facility," He gathered, "Only Hagakure, Iida, and Yoayorozu aren't accounted for." Not to mention class 3-A where they were still missing Kodai, Shiozaki, and Honenuki, _and_ Monoma and Kaminari.

Ochako quirked her head as something occurred to her.

"Deku," She said, tugging on his elbow, "Why did you and Todoroki split up from the villains?"

Izuku shrugged, "Because I wanted something that would draw Kacchan in and Todoroki just wanted an excuse to deface Endeavor's house."

"What did Kaminari and Monoma end up doing?"

Kirishima and Jirou both frowned as they tried to catch up with their train of thought.

"Not sure," His eyebrows scrunched together, "You don't think they're still—?"

"I mean, they haven't shown up anywhere else."

Their eyes widened at the same time as they figured it out. Izuku brought his hand to his ear, tapping the button that would connect him with Aizawa's team and Ochako following his lead.

"Aizawa-sensei?" Izuku said, and then continued a little more frantically when he received no answer, "Aizawa-sensei!?"

»»-¤-««

"You know, _heroes_ ," One of the annoying redheaded bitches spoke over the sound system, "There's more than one way to make someone fall asleep."

Yeah—a fully charged pikachu who apparently had no qualms with who got hit by his fucking quirk. By the time Bakugou had noticed the static electricity making his hairs stand on end, he'd barely managed to ignite an explosion to propel himself in the air so as to avoid the current the bastard had sent through the ground—Ochako's quirk would really come in handy right about now.

Something was jamming their comms (probably Kaminari again, that bastard), but Bakugou guessed that her words meant that either Shinsou or Aizawa had been successful in detaining the villain with the sleep-inducing quirk. He wondered, however, if those two and Tokoyami managed to avoid that blast of electricity. He'd have to kill them if they didn't, because there was no way in _hell_ he could do this by himself.

Dammit—he'd only managed to open one shitty containment unit only to find the damned thing empty when that attack went off.

He cursed, peeking into the cell one more time just in case he missed something. Except that it really did look empty as fuck. He scanned the ceilings, looking for anything that might indicate that this particular unit wasn't just a dead end. That's when he noticed a loop of rope hanging from the ceiling—except that it was taut, like there was something pulling down on it.

He dodged blindly, feeling a gust of air fly past his head. There was a thud as something hit the floor, and when he glanced up the rope had gone limp. His mind raced as he tried to piece together what was going on, the adrenaline running through his system putting him on high alert

Soft footsteps charged towards him, and he stepped out of the way at the last second, grinning.

"Hagakure," He said as he figured it out, building an explosion in his hands—small enough that his sound silencers would do the trick but big enough to cause some property damage. He aimed at the cement floor, making sure to pick up as much debris and dust as possible and then flung it forward to where he thought she was hiding. Regardless if it hit her or not, her movements would still be obvious with all the dusting clouding the air.

"So they got to you too, huh?" He inquired, setting off another explosion towards the ground to propel more dust into the air, "That's kind of shitty."

He growled when he received no response, eyeing the dust and smoke that seemed to be wrapping around her invisible form.

"What's wrong?" He cajoled, "I thought you loved the spotlight! You're just gonna let them keep you in the shadows like this?"

Hagakure chuckled, probably because she didn't see the point of hiding her location when Katsuki had already kind of fucked that up, "So you do pay attention to your other classmates. How thoughtful of you, Bakugou."

"I try," He offered, grinning sarcastically and throwing an explosion her way as she charged towards him again.

"Hate to break it to you," He said, reaching out to what he hoped was her arm and grabbing her as she rushed through the debris in the air to dodge his attack. He pushed her down, pressing all of his weight down onto her, "But in a battle between me n' you, I've got the advantage." He ground his kneed into her back, "N'you wanna know what else I noticed about you? How big of a mouth you have. Now tell me what their next plan is."

»»-¤-««

"Are you picking anything up, Jirou?" Ochako whispered to the girl.

Facility B wasn't _too_ far from facility A, although it had still taken them a bit to get here. Longer than any of them would have liked, at least. It was a little alarming to arrive here and to see a large majority of the pro heroes around the perimeter knocked out cold—the only ones still standing were the ones with flying, teleporting, and jumping quirks. That was a big indication that it wasn't Kawaguchi Fumi's quirk, but something else entirely.

"A lot of shit," Jirou answered, pressing her headphones more firmly into her ears, "There's, like, four separate fights going on right now. One of them is _definitely_ Bakugou."

"What about my damned sisters?" Kawaguchi asked.

Jirou scrunched her eyebrows together in concentration, "I'd have to get closer to tell—there's just too much going on to focus in on everything."

Kirishima nodded, hardening up his body in his trademark pose.

"I'm gonna go ahead and wake up these pros," Akiko offered, "Seems kinda like we're going to need all the help we can get."

The four students nodded, saluting Kawaguchi before running towards the warehouse.

»»-¤-««

"Do you guys feel that?" Ochako wondered aloud, bumping into Deku and getting zapped when they made contact with each other. She gasped in surprise, glancing over at Jirou and noticing that her hair was sticking up from static electricity. She blinked, thinking back to all the winged heroes outside that had been fretting over their comrades who'd been knocked out suddenly, and quickly reached out to the three of her friends, activating her quirk on them one by one and then herself. Just as they began floating a foot above the ground, Ochako took note of the sparks of electricity that were suddenly projecting across the floor. She hoped Akiko somehow found a way to avoid that literal shockwave.

"Kaminari," Jirou stated.

"But how are the villains avoiding that?" Kirishima asked, bringing his legs up criss-cross apple-sauce as he floated in the air.

"Rubber shoes?" Ochako guessed, chuckling stupidly. And then they all gasped at once.

"Yaoyorozu," They said in unison.

»»-¤-««

Bakugou slinked down the hallways of this damned place, looking desperately for the next cell. He needed information—just as Hagakure was about to give in and tell him what he needed to know, pikachu had sent another wave of electricity through the ground that he was only barely able to dodge. He couldn't say the same about invisible chick though.

He tied her up before he left, pulling out a red flag he had in one of his pockets and wrapping it around her head so she'd be pretty unmistakable.

He was just about to round a corner when he heard footsteps. He pivoted his weight backwards, pressing his body up against the wall and peeking over his shoulder and just around the wall to see who it was.

He let out a breath of relief when he saw who it was.

"Shinsou," He said, "Please tell me you were able to get the sleep chick."

"Ah, Bakugou," Shinsou greeted, pulling down his mouthpiece so as to speak with him without accidently activating his quirk on him, "Aizawa found her first, and last I heard before the comms went down was that he had successfully taken her down."

Katsuki grunted.

"Well, s'good thing you're here. Last cell I opened, the 'hostage' inside tried to attack me."

»»-¤-««

"Someone's coming!" Jirou informed them, throwing her arm out to stop them from moving forward. Her earjack snuck forward, nestling itself in the wall to try and figure out who was advancing towards them. But the footsteps were moving fast enough that even the other three could hear it.

Jirou relaxed at the same time Bakugou and Shinsou rounded the corner.

Bakugou scoffed upon seeing them, "Look who finally decided to show up!"

Ochako and Izuku rolled their eyes.

"By process of elimination, I'm assuming you guys know who they're keeping here from U.A.?" Shinsou inquired.

Kirishima nodded, with a pout on his face, "I wish I knew the grades below us better, then we'd really have an idea of what we're dealing with."

"Oh!" Izuku piped up with a smile, "None of the other grades have anyone at this facility." He tapped his chin in thought, "But there should be a couple students from Shiketsu High, if I counted right."

"Come on, nerd," Bakugou griped, ruffling Izuku's hair to the shock of everyone except Ochako, "Spit those calculations out."

"There should be six students from U.A. unaccounted for, not including Monoma and Kaminari. There were fifteen Shiketsu students found with Aizawa-sensei and the others…" He continued tapping his chin, his speech turning more into mumbling that no one could really understand. He slapped his fist against his palm once he figured it out, "There should be three students from Shiketsu here!"

"Alright, so eleven plus pikachu and copy-cat," Bakugou nodded, "I've only encountered Hagakure, and she's already been dealt with. Who else are we looking for?"

»»-¤-««

They split up into three teams to cover more ground—Kirishima went with Shinsou, Ochako went with Izuku, and Bakugou went with Jirou. Once they've either rescued or detained the students being held here, they were to meet up near where they believe the villains were rallying. She and Izuku didn't run into many problems as far as these hostages went—those who were definitely far gone enough to side with villains were the ones that hadn't been knocked off their feet by Kaminari's charges, and they only encountered two of them. But they overpowered them easily thanks to their tip from Bakugou—one of them was a Shiketsu student and the other was Kodai from class 3-B.

Ochako breathed out a big sigh of relief when one of the hostages that had been knocked out cold was Iida—meaning he hadn't completely given in yet. With the combined efforts of both her and Deku's quirks, they moved him and all others outside and into the hands of the pros.

"That's four," Ochako stated, "Let's go."

They trekked over to the rendezvous point, feeling like the end was finally in sight. When they got there, the others were already waiting for them—Ochako and Izuku did have one more cell to open up than the others, so they batted away Bakugou's snarky, "Took you long enough."

Jirou was squatting down, her quirk inputting into the wall again.

"Aizawa's in there," She informed them, talking about whatever laid beyond they hallway they were in, "He made quick work of Parasite, but that bastard memory-thief is in the walls so there's no way for sensei to use his quirk on him. Yoamomo and Kaminari are definitely still active—but from the lack of electric shocks we've been receiving, I'd say Aizawa's erased their quirks."

"That bastard's in the walls, huh?" Shinsou's eyebrows rose as he fiddled with his mouthpiece, "Well, then let's drown that cowardly piece of shit out." He turned to Bakugou, "How much smoke can you generate in two minutes?"

Katsuki grinned, tugging on the end of his gloves.

»»-¤-««

It was almost anticlimactic—with the loss of Togami Maho's quirk, the villains were now embarrassingly outnumbered. It took seconds to defeat the memory-thief (a scrawny middle-aged man who gave Ochako the heebie-jeebies) once he was forced out of the walls thanks to Shinsou's amplified quirk. He and Kawaguchi Fumi and Hana were taken into custody and charged with the murder of hundreds. Coordinate, upon furthering questioning, was charged with less severe of a crime; Tsukauchi determined that she allowed herself to be captured on purpose. She joined up with these particular villains for money and was upset when they destroyed an entire city and killed hundreds—she didn't want to be part of that any longer. In exchange for information about other villains she's worked with in the past, she was sent to juvie and ordered a large sum of community service hours.

Monoma, as it turns out, wasn't even on sight. His great act of 'villainy' was to deface public property in Musutafu with crude spray-painted pictures of class 3-A—he'd given them all horrendous mustaches and his biggest 'crime' outside of vandalism was a noise complaint when he'd finished up his masterpiece and laughed maniacally over it. When Ochako had heard about it, _she_ laughed maniacally because Monoma was a _cook_.

But despite that, Monoma still had undergone unwilling mind manipulation and he, along with Yoayorozu, Kaminari, Todoroki, Kodai, Hagakure, and even Iida, were required to undergo rigorous therapy sessions until they were deemed fit to return to classes.

The government officials that had been brainwashed by the villains had been weeded out and also sent to therapy. After a lot of convincing from Aizawa and the other teachers at both U.A. and Shiketsu, the remaining representatives deemed the schools safe for the students to return to.

Bakugou, Ochako, Kirishima, Jirou, Izuku, Tokoyami and Shinsou, an unlikely bunch, somehow became the pillars of support in their class. Whenever one of their classmates was feeling on edge, or needed reassurance of what was real versus what wasn't—they would seek one of them out. Ochako's not sure how many times Tsuyu has shown up at her door, eyes wobbly or how many times Ashido forces her down onto the couch in the commons just so that she can cuddle her while they watch a movie.

Whenever anyone wants advice on how to cope, they go to Katsuki—which is actually hilarious considering that Bakugou _still_ isn't comfortable with voicing his feelings with everyone. Ochako often has to translate his grumbles and short responses for their other classmates.

When Todoroki returns to class after _weeks_ of therapy, it's kind of a bittersweet moment. Everyone was happy to see him again, but it was also very apparent that Shouto was still working through a lot of the shit that had been forced into his head.

After a few months, once all of their classmates have returned to their studies and seemed to be recovering well, things started to look a little brighter.

"Ochako," Mina sighed dreamily from her place on her bed—they were having a girl's night, and things took a turn for the wild when Yoamomo attempted to paint Hagakure's toenails only to fail epically. They had roared and laughed over Tooru's toes for a solid ten minutes before finally calming down.

"Mm?" She inquired, biting her tongue as she concentrated of painting Tsuyu's nails.

"You still need to tell us all about your relationship with Bakugou," She clasped her hands together, "I bet he's secretly a romantic!"

Ochako snorted. Katsuki was affectionate, yes, but _hardly_ romantic.

"Sure," She agreed sarcastically, "If you think beating the shit out of each other on the training grounds is romantic."

"Oh please," Jirou scoffed, "I've caught you two making out all over campus, _including_ the training grounds."

"Making out is hot," Uraraka defended, "But _not_ romantic."

Ashido pouted, "Well then what _does_ he do that's romantic? You must have fallen for him for _some_ reason."

Ochako hummed, adding another layer to Tsuyu's nails, "Well, he _is_ really cuddly. Thumb wars are like…our thing. And he always keeps his promises—" She sighed dreamily, having found that her mouth couldn't stop now that she started, "He let's me ask him a question a day that he _has_ to answer honestly. He likes to braid my hair, and he always squishes my face and plays with my finger pads. He lets me get away with tickling him—"

"I've heard Bakugou refer to Uraraka as his queen!" Hagakure chirped excitedly.

Ochako blushed at that—she's not sure she's ever been on the receiving end of that one except for that one time with Shinsou and Deku. She's only ever heard him call her angel.

"No you haven't," Ochako insisted, capping the bottle of the nail polish.

"It's true, Ochako-chan," Tsuyu insisted, "I've heard it too."

"He's not really quiet about it," Yoamomo added, smiling sheepishly, "With everyone but you, that is."

"Oh my god," Ochako squeaked, face burning even darker, "Can we go back to laughing at Tooru's toes?"

"No!" Mina cried, wrapping her hand around Ochako's arm and shaking her a little, "You haven't even told us whether or not he's a good kisser! Or if you've ever had sex!"

"Oh for the love of…" Jirou trailed off, rolling her eyes, "Have you _seen_ the hickeys they leave on each other? Of course they've had sex."

Mina _squealed_ at this.

Ochako blushed deeply, giving herself away. Mine latched onto this like a koala, questioning Ochako ravenously about whether or not Katsuki was good with his hands like they all speculated and what his ass felt like and if he had any crazy kinks. Ochako did not mention his affinity for giving up control to her, but she humored her friends and revealed with a red face a little of what it was like to bed Bakugou Katsuki.

»»-¤-««

"What's this I've heard about you calling me your queen?" Ochako inquired after bursting through Katsuki's door, "Oh hey, Deku!" Deku had his head in Bakugou's lap and he was scrolling through his phone while Katsuki scanned through their math textbook.

"Hey, Ochako!" Deku chirped from his spot. He didn't make any move to remove himself from Bakugou's lap, but he did scoot down a little in case she wanted to occupy his other thigh. Ever since the villain shit had blown over, the two boys only continued to grow closer and closer. Katsuki and Ochako probably spent as much time with Izuku as they did with each other. But Ochako didn't mind one bit—she loved having Deku around, and they only ever really kicked him out when she and Bakugou wanted to makeout or have sex. And Izuku was good about picking up on their moods and often excused himself out without their help.

"What are you gripin' about, 'Chako?" Katsuki grumped, setting down his textbook and tugging her down on the floor with them.

"You tell everyone I'm your queen?"

"Aren't you?"

Ochako rolled her eyes, reaching up to pinch his cheek.

"It's kinda sweet, Ochako!" Izuku sighed, "You're the queen of explosion murder!"

"Oh yeah," She agreed blandly, "That's _really_ sweet."

Katsuki scoffed, "You should feel honored."

Ochako smiled, pushing herself into his warmth.

"Okay, okay. You got me," She said, and then added softly: "You really do."

Katsuki pressed a kiss onto her forehead, and for the first time in a while there wasn't even a speck of darkness in her mind.


	7. ten years later

**_chapter seven:_** **ten years later**

Bakugou woke with a gasp, sitting up in bed quickly and immediately reaching out in search of Ochako next to him. He frowned when his fingertips brushed against nothing but empty sheets. He brought his hand back to his chest, willing his beating heart to chill and fiddling with the golden band around his ring finger. It was one of the few things that could calm his anxiety when Ochako wasn't around—it was cool against his body heat and _tangible_.

He walked him through everything that had gotten him to this moment—he'd woken up in the morning put out that Ochako still hadn't returned from her extended mission, had sent their daughter off to school, and then left to work. Deku had asked if he could take Todai out while Bakugou was still on patrol, and he agreed easily as long as Izuku brought her home with enough time for her to complete her homework—the little brat seemed to love Uncle Izuku more than her own damn parents sometimes. How his own flesh and blood turned out to be such a _nerd_ was beyond him.

He let out a long breath, letting the anxiety that had flared up within himself exit his body—thinking of his and Ochako's little princess also helped him keep his grip on reality when things got cloudy.

It didn't happen too often, this anxiety. But it was always triggered by his dreams when it did. He always managed to shake it off, but it frustrated him that he was still dealing with this shit after so long. Ochako always assured him that it was okay, and that no one loved him any less over this particular struggle. Akiko had informed them gravely that this was simply an unfortunate side effect of Parasite attacking your mind rather than just being the conductor of it.

Fuck his shitty brain.

He rolled over, his head resting on his hand. His lips brushed against his wedding ring. While he wasn't able to return to sleep without Ochako by his side, he did find a little comfort in knowing that his life with her wasn't something that he imagined and the evidence was sitting on his finger.

»»-¤-««

"Hey, squirt," Bakugou greeted in the morning, laying down a plate of bacon on the kitchen table as Todai padded into the room. She was wearing one of Deku's old All Might shirts that was threatening to swallow her whole—she had cute little Ground Zero slippers on that made his heart overflow with affection. He untied the apron from around his waist, pulled it over his head and threw it aside before stooping down and lifting her into his arms. Todai giggled, throwing her tiny arms around her dad and snuggling into his neck.

"How'dya sleep?" He asked, pressing a kiss into her spiky brown hair.

Todai pulled back, her big red eyes sparkling, "It took forever to fall asleep, Dad! I'm so excited to see Mom!"

Ochako had called yesterday to let them know that she was on her way home and that she'd be back sometime in the morning or afternoon after debriefing.

"Can I skip school today?" Todai prodded, pinching her dad's cheeks, "Please, please, _pleeeease?_ "

"Momma would kill me if I let you do that, princess," Katsuki chuckled, grabbing her by the armpits and placing her back onto the floor. He definitely didn't blame the little brat—he was _also_ really excited to see Ochako. "She called this morning while you were still sleeping—she's going to be a little longer than she thought. That means there wouldn't even be a reason for you to skip school, but nice try."

Todai pouted, but dropped the subject in favor of climbing up onto one of the chairs to reach for the bacon.

"Ah ah!" Katsuki started sternly, "Wash hands first—you don't need to be oozing nitroglycerin all over your food."

Todai sighed, but obediently stepped onto the stepstool in front of the sink so wash her hands. She dried them off hurriedly before rushing back to the table.

Katsuki joined her a moment later, carrying the pan of eggs to the table and placing it on a hot pad. He kissed the crown of her head before settling into his own seat and helping her dish up the eggs and pancakes.

»»-¤-««

"We switched again, Kacchan!" Deku proclaimed as he popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, with a hero magazine in his hands. Katsuki didn't jump at the sudden appearance of his friend, too used to Izuku doing this, but he did almost bite his tongue as he was sipping on his coffee.

Katsuki glared at the magazine, and rolled his eyes at Deku.

Izuku pouted, taking his seat across from Katsuki at the usual café they frequented.

"Kacchan," He whined, waving the magazine in Bakugou's face like he didn't think Katsuki was reacting as enthusiastically as he should, "You're the number one hero—how cool is that?"

"We have this same damned conversation every other month, nerd," Katsuki grumped, batting the magazine out of his face, "It's really not _that_ cool when we've been switching ranks every time the polls are in for the past _four_ years."

"Well," Izuku chirped, "Sometimes Todoroki-kun claims it."

Katsuki rubbed his temples, "Don't remind me."

Izuku grinned, "But guess _what_."

"What," Katsuki deadpanned.

" _Guess_."

Bakugou growled, "You're really gonna make me play this damned game?"

Izuku nodded, sending a thumbs up to the barista when they shouted from over the counter wondering if Deku would like his usual.

A long sigh, "Half n' half got bumped down even lower than spot three?"

Deku laughed, "You wish."

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "I guessed. Now just fuckin' tell me."

Izuku's grin widened, and there was a certain set to his posture—pride? Excitement? A mixture of the two? Katsuki would never admit it out loud, but the things that excited Deku usually excited him too. So he made eye contact with Izuku, showing the nerd that he was listening as he said, "Ochako's number _four_."

Katsuki blinked.

"No way!" He exclaimed, ripping the magazine out of the hands of a smug Izuku. He flipped through a bunch of bullshit propaganda articles until he found the hero rankings. He stared down with wide eyes at spot number four which was in fact now held by his wife, bumping Iida down to number five. "She jumped _twelve_ spots!"

"I _know!"_

"What do you think it was?" Katsuki inquired excitedly, whipping his head up to look at Izuku, "The Kyoto incident or the building collapse last month? Both were a big deal, and she handled both practically _by herself_ with minimal casualties."

"I think both shed just enough light on her to get people to start paying attention to how kickass she is," Izuku offered, grinning from ear to ear, "I've been seeing a lot more of her merch around town too."

"About fucking time," Katsuki said, "She's been working her ass off! Hopefully she'll knock half n' half out of the rankings entirely!"

Izuku snorted, "I'm sure she could surpass any one of us—but I really doubt it would knock Todoroki-kun off the list _entirely."_

"Could you just let me _dream?"_ Katsuki growled, biting into his sandwich while he scanned through the article connected to the rankings. As it should be, the focus of the article was on Ochako's great leap up the rankings. Izuku chuckled, thanking the waitress as his food was brought to him.

"Is it cool if I come with you to pick Tocchan up from school?" Izuku asked, picking up his chopsticks and smiling fondly at Katsuki as he continued to sift through Ochako's article.

"Mhm," Katsuki hummed, distracted.

»»-¤-««

Deku had a happy skip to his step as he walked in front of Bakugou, always eager to spoil his closest friends' kid with affection. Bakugou rolled his eyes—the nerd probably didn't even notice that he was leaving Katsuki in the dust. But Bakugou didn't mind—he'd catch up with them soon and make sure to give Todai extra cuddles to put Deku in his place.

When he finally rounded the corner to where he usually picked his daughter up, he saw that Todai was nestled into Izuku's arms and that they were talking to one of the teachers. Katsuki caught the tail end of the conversation.

"—your daughter is the sweetest little thing," The teacher was telling Deku, as she was stroking Todai's hair, "No wonder, since her dad's so nice!"

Katsuki snorted, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with Deku and causing the lady to jump.

"The fuck?" He griped, holding his arms out to Todai who climbed into them eagerly, "You think this nerd is Todai's dad? As if." He nuzzled into his daughter's hair, and then bit down on one of her chubby cheeks playfully, "Hey, button."

"Daddy!" She sang happily.

Izuku sighed, "Kacchan, what have we told you about swearing in front of Tocchan?"

"Aw, shut the fuck up," Katsuki whined, helping Todai monkey onto his shoulders and pointedly ignoring her teacher's mortified expression, "She hasn't picked it up yet."

"'Cause Momma says only meanie butts use bad words like that!" Todai proclaimed, grabbing two handfuls of Katsuki's hair to help her balance.

Bakugou frowned, because he's heard all sorts of colorful language escape Ochako's mouth, "That hypocritical bitch."

Izuku chuckled nervously, grabbing Bakugou by the elbow to push him towards the door and waving goodbye to Todai's teacher with his other hand. Katsuki went willingly, which was a relief for Izuku—he really was worried Bakugou would get into a fight if any of the other parents complained about his foul mouth.

It wasn't a long walk from Todai's school to Bakugou and Ochako's house, and Katsuki ignored the stares around them—they often were recognized on the streets, and it didn't help that he and Deku were each holding one of Todai's hands. The tabloids went crazy over what exactly was going on between the two boys and Ochako—many have accused Katsuki of cheating on his wife. That theory was thankfully blown to hell because Ochako is just as affectionate with Deku as Katsuki is and vice versa—the big question debated now is whether or not both of them were involved romantically with the nerd. Katsuki could really care less about any of it, but the fact of the matter is that Izuku is just family.

"You wanna come up for dinner?" Katsuki asked Izuku when they made it to his house, knowing the nerd probably had patrol but wanting to ask anyways. He sneered at the garden gnome peeking out from behind the flowers.

Deku shook his head, smiling, "Gotta go to work. But thanks, Kacchan! I'll have to come over for dinner soon!"

"Come play soon too!" Todai insisted, jumping up and down in front of Deku with her arms raised. Izuku chuckled, bending down to pick her up in a bear hug. Todai giggled, her arms encircling Deku's neck until her fingers were interlocked. Deku grinned, letting go of her so she could dangle from his neck.

"You're so strong, Tocchan!" He praised, squeezing her biceps playfully, "Wish me luck, okay?"

"Luck!" She exclaimed, smacking a kiss onto his neck.

Izuku laughed, holding her back out to Katsuki. He accepted her into his arms, and they both waved at the green-haired hero as he disappeared down the street. Then Katsuki trudged up the steps with Todai and slipped into the house. The first thing that they both noticed was that a few of the lights were on. They exchanged eager looks, and then Todai was squirming out of his embrace, landing on the floor with the kind of grace only Bakugou Katsuki's daughter could exhibit, and running towards the kitchen.

"Mommy!" She screeched happily, footsteps padding against the hardwood in a quick rhythm.

"Princess!" Ochako's voice exclaimed, "I've missed you so much!"

"Mommy, mommy, mommy!" Todai chanted.

Katsuki rounded the corner, leaning up against the wall to watch his two girls. Ochako looked tired, but her smile was as alive as ever as she gazed at her daughter and planted kisses all over her face causing Todai to giggle cutely. She had clearly just started dinner, and she had already changed into a Ground Zero shirt and those shorts that he liked so much.

"Hey, Momma," He flirted.

Ochako glanced up, grin widening as their eyes met. She stood up to her full height and wagged her finger in a way that could only mean 'come hither'.

He obeyed.

He wrapped his arms around her—he'd missed her warmth—and leaned down to steal a kiss. He hummed, pleasantly surprised when she deepened it a smidge. He pushed forward, trying to see what he could get away with and adding a little tongue.

"Gross!" Todai complained, "Daddy's got cooties, mom!"

Katsuki and Ochako separated with a smack, smiling down at their daughter.

"Nuh uh," Katsuki disagreed childishly, squeezing Ochako's sides, "Momma's the one with cooties."

"If _I_ have cooties," Ochako drawled, "Then I infected you a long time ago, _Daddy."_

"Izzat so?" He grinned, stooping down quickly to pick Todai up and hold her between himself and Ochako, "You hear that, Todi? We're both infected, and you are now too!" He leaned forward, attacking her cheek with kisses. Ochako followed his lead until their daughter was a writhing, giggling mess.

The oven beeped, reminding the two adults of their responsibilities.

"Let's help Momma make dinner," Katsuki suggested, placing Todai back on the ground.

Ochako smiled.

»»-¤-««

After dinner, Katsuki cleaned up while Ochako and Todai caught up—most of which included them playing hide and seek and Todai eagerly showing off what she learned to do with her quirk while she had been gone.

"That's so cool, baby!" Ochako praised, showering her in eskimo kisses.

Katsuki smiled as he watched the sight fondly—back when he was a snotty teenager, he never knew he could love this deeply. He couldn't even begin to put into words how much gratitude he had to Ochako for letting him be honest with her and with himself all those years ago. He was beyond lucky to have these two angels in his life.

After a little while, Katsuki and Ochako could tell that Todai was getting tuckered out. And it wasn't much longer before they were tucking her into bed, turning off the light of her bedroom, and then stumbling off tiredly to their own bedroom just down the hall.

Ochako collapsed onto their bed, watching with half-lidded eyes as Katsuki stripped down to his boxers to join her—Bakugou snorted at the heated look in her eyes, knowing full well that she was going to clock out any second now. He crawled in next to her, urging her into his side. But that wasn't enough for her, and pretty soon she was laying between his legs with her head resting comfortably on his chest.

"Hey," She murmured, kissing his collarbone.

"Hey," He said back, voice low and gravelly.

"How are you?" She asked, words slow.

Katsuki snorted, because she was trying so hard to stay awake for him.

"I'm a lot better now that you're back," He assured her, squeezing his arms around her lightly and kissing the top of her head.

"Mm that's good," She sounded like she was going to pass out mid-sentence if she kept trying to keep up a conversation.

"Go to bed, cheeks," He chuckled.

"Mmkay, love you." Another kiss to his chest, "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah," He breathed, feeling all the anxieties that had bled into the day from the night before leave him all at once, "See you tomorrow. Love you."


End file.
